Saved by Fire
by celestia193
Summary: Left to die on top of a mountain, Ciara gets a new life, at a terrible cost. Everyone around her is dead, and now, she's as different as can be. But she can take comfort in her best friend, and the only one who's got her back no matter what. I do not own Naruto. Plot follows canon, some non-canon in the anime. Some arcs not included. Now working on: Journeys with Jiraiya: Mishaps
1. The Four Dragons Palace

**I'm going to just put my warning here, since I really don't want to have to deal with additional reviews with complaints.**

 **This is not an AU, this happens in the canon-verse, so the events are going to take place as usual, but with twists and additions, and minimal, but still present divergences from canon. These divergences will grow, slowly. I'm not going to give away all of the details at once, because that would be boring and no fun at all. So if you're going to read, please be patient, and buckle yourselves in for the long haul, because this is not going to be a short story.**

 **Also, flashbacks, there will be dream flashbacks, and a few conscious ones that relate to particular people, objects, or events.**

 **Public Service Announcement is now over.**

 **Please enjoy the story.**

* * *

I was only five years old, sleeping peacefully in my bed when the attack happened. No one saw it coming, especially not after the war ended. There must have been a traitor somewhere in the Leaf, because somehow, they managed to slip past the impenetrable barrier, and without alerting the entire estate. But I have no idea who the traitor could be, seeing as our clan had influence spread widely throughout the village, and contained members of many other clans, through inheritance, or through marriage.

Someone outside of the clans must have had a deep grudge against us. One that they decided to act on.

* * *

What wakes me up that night is a burst of scarlet fire outside my window and a terrifying scream. I know that screams are bad, so I tumble out of bed, pull some clothes on, and race downstairs as quickly as my little legs can carry me. I don't know what's going on, but I know enough to realize that it isn't good. No one trains out in the open this late at night, and especially not so close to my bedroom window, let alone the clan leader's residence. We have training rooms underground if people want to train, as well as a huge space over by the lake. I know, I've been there before with Dad.

A mighty roar shakes the house, and on instinct, I drop to the floor and roll into a closet. That roar is one that I know well. It's Dad. That roar only happens when he's fighting as hard as he can. It means that he's desperate. But it also means that he's protecting us, all of us.

I tremble in a tiny ball, curled up in a corner as I hold my hands over my head, waiting for the roars to die down. It isn't safe to be around Dad when he's fighting like that, that's what my aunts and uncles all tell me. But with the roaring calmed, it should be safe to go outside. So I totter out of the closet and down the hallway, finding the main hall, as well as the door that leads outside. I stumble to the door, and tug on the handle that I can just barely reach. I tug over and over, until the door swings open. But I'm not the one who made it swing open.

I tumble backwards from the force of the door opening, and when I look up, I see the masked face of an intruder. I may be small, but that doesn't mean that I'm helpless. I jump to my feet and run past the intruder as quickly as I can, desperate to find Dad. If the intruder made it this far, then it means that Dad is in trouble, or he's hurt somewhere. Otherwise, he would never have let one of them slip past and get to me.

But when I make it out into the front courtyard, I see a horrific sight. I must have slept through most of the fighting, because in front of me, are bodies strewn all over the grass, both the bodies of intruders, as well as the members of the clan. Blood everywhere, seeping into the ground, turning the bright green grass a dark and dirty crimson. I may be a child, but that doesn't mean that I don't know what a battlefield is supposed to look like. I just never thought that I would see one on the grounds of my home.

I stop in my tracks when I see an all too familiar form lying in the grass, surrounded by a pool of blood. "Daddy!" I run towards him, tears leaking from my eyes and streaming down my cheeks. "Daddy, no!" I skid to a stop next to him and kneel down in the blood-soaked grass. But he isn't breathing, his eyes are just barely open, but glazed over. I touch his face, and it's cold against my tiny fingers.

"So, you're the dragon's little brat?" A terribly cruel-sounding voice materializes behind me, making me shiver and shake like a leaf in a storm.

I turn around, to see one of the masked intruders behind me. Rage overcomes my sadness and fear, and I get to my feet. "Who are you!? Why did you do this!? What did we ever do to you!?" More tears pour out of my eyes. "Go away! I hate you! I hate you all!"

He glares menacingly at me. "We are here to destroy the Palace of the Four Dragons."

His words ring in my ears. _The Palace of the Four Dragons? What is he…?_ Then it occurs to me. "The Four Dragons' Palace…the Shiryugu Clan? Why? Why are you here to kill us!?"

"Shut up, brat!" He raises a short-sword and points it at my face. "Orders are orders. We are to carry out this mission at all costs, even if that means that all of us die bringing you abominations to an end. Now die!"

He slashes at me with his sword, his advantage being that he's much bigger and faster than me, and catches me in the stomach, ripping me open and spilling my blood all over the grass. I collapse to the ground, trying to hold in the blood coming from my stomach. But I'm dying, and he knows it. And instead of killing me in one blow, he leaves me there, bleeding to death. My vision starts to blur, and I feel cold. It's the end for me.

* * *

But before everything goes completely dark, I see a pair of red eyes above me, a lovely, fiery scarlet. "Lady Ciara…Lady Ciara! Wake up!"

I blink and my vision clears, but only a little as I start to feel warm again. "Uncle?"

He nods, clearly showing me the eyes that belong to my youngest aunt's husband. "Good, I thought I'd lost you as well." He looks at me, and uncovers the wound in my stomach. "A fatal wound…" He shakes his head. "No, not today. The main house will not disappear today." He turns to the sky, as it brightens suddenly, filling the sky with light and fire. "Please help me, she must survive."

A soft, whispering voice reaches me on the breeze. "Very well, but she will be marked for the rest of her life…" Gold, orange, and scarlet light pulses above my head, though not in a form that I recognize.

"I know." He looks back down at me, and chakra flows into his palms as he heals me a little, keeping me alive as long as he can. It gives him time to start weaving a complex series of seals. "Five Dragons Secret Art: Holy Dragon Seal!"

He places his hands on my stomach, and his touch burns. The light above me crackles and shines, and comes closer, growing brighter but smaller. It descends towards me, and I can see red, silver, gold, blue and brown markings extending over my skin. They turn white suddenly, and the ball of light falls into my stomach, burning as it enters my body.

I start writhing in pain, but my uncle holds me down. "It's alright, it's all going to be alright. You will survive this night. Be calm and rest now…" And the black markings inside his crimson eyes spin quickly, hypnotizing me. "Sleep…"

I don't want to, but a heavy warmth falls over me, forcing me into a deep sleep.


	2. Lost and Found

As the sun comes up and sunlight streams through the trees, I shift a little, and my eyes can just barely open. Everything hurts, which means that I'm still alive. Though I don't know for how long. And then, I hear quick footsteps and several voices. They all sound like adults.

"This one's dead."

"This one too."

"This is a pretty big body count."

"Looks like a massacre…"

"But how? This is the one place in the village that is impossible to enter unless you know the seal's make-up. Only the clan members and special guests can enter here."

An older voice silences the others. "It means that there is a traitor in the village. Someone with intimate knowledge of the clan's highest level techniques and seals. And likely not one of the ones here. This was clearly a move to cripple our village's power. They picked the most powerful target, and successfully wiped out everyone…even the children…"

I shift a little, trying to push myself up. My arms are numb, but I've got more stubbornness than this numbness can stop. At least, that's what I like to tell myself. I roll over, and struggle to my knees. I look around, and see many figures in black and grey, with white animal masks, colored with green, red, yellow, blue, and purple.

One of them notices me, and rushes over. "We've got a survivor!" She clasps her hand around my arm and pulls me up. "What's your name?"

I ignore her, and stare down at the body on the grass next to where I was sleeping, sadness and horror blooming inside me as I take in the stillness of the form next to me. "Uncle…" There is blood around him. He must have been injured himself before he came to find me. Saving me must have been too much for him. "No…Uncle…" Fresh tears pour down my cheeks, soaking my dried face once again.

One of them walks over and examines my uncle. "This one…it's an Uchiha, must have married into the clan." He uncovers a mark on my uncle's neck, in the shape of a paper fan, the crest of the Uchiha. Then he turns to me. "She might be one too, check her neck."

The woman with her hand on my arm moves aside the collar of my shirt. "No mark. Maybe no manifestation of power yet. She might be impossible to identify until we get a name out of her. And in this state, I doubt we'll get any straight answers out of her."

I turn away from them, looking back towards my father's body. "Daddy…you were supposed to protect us…" I sniffle a little. "A roar means that you're going to win…right? You always said that…when you roar, no one can beat you." Tears start trickling down my cheeks, like little pearls in the early morning light.

The old man approaches me, and the woman lets go of my arm. The old man touches my hands and turns me to face him, wiping away some of my tears. "Ciara?" I blink at him, then nod. And a terrible expression of sadness crosses his face. "You're Ryouta's little girl, aren't you?" And again, I nod.

He turns to the others, still holding one of my hands. "This is Lady Ciara, Lord Ryouta's little girl. She has no mark on her because her powers do not require a death seal. She's the heiress of the main house."

That surprises them. "So, you're saying that the only survivor was a member of the main house? Wouldn't they have been the primary target? Why would they leave her alive?"

I look down at my uncle sadly. "They didn't…Uncle saved me. He healed me, and now he's dead too…"

One of them crosses his arms suspiciously. "Lord Hokage, are you certain that this girl is the lord's daughter? I've never heard of him having children."

The old man nods. "Yes, I'm quite certain. I once saw a photo of her that he had shown me of his daughter. It was over a year ago, so she was much smaller, but it is most certainly her." He turns back to me and pats my head. "Come child, let's get you to the hospital and make sure that you're all right."

"Lord Hokage, should we deal with things here?"

He nods. "See to it that you follow the proper funeral procedures. The crypts are under the estate, through the floor of the main meeting hall. Be careful to put everyone where they belong. And then, work on identifying the attackers. I want to know exactly who dared to sneak into the village under the cover of darkness and destroy one of our greatest clans."

"Yes, Lord Hokage, Sir!"

The Hokage gently squeezes my hand. "Come now, little one. Let us leave all of this blood and death behind…"

I nod, and stay quiet as he leads me down the mountain, and into the village. Our clan has always lived on the eastern outskirts, away from the busy streets. Something about liking privacy, but I'm a little young to know what that means. All I know is that we like it up there.

At least we did…

* * *

I spend the next week and a half in the hospital letting them run all sorts of tests on me to make sure that I'm okay. And during one of the doctor's routine visits, he brings a nurse in with him. "A remarkable recovery, but she still hasn't spoken. It's been ten days, and she hasn't said a word."

The doctor nods. "It might be from the trauma that Lord Hokage described. He said that she was found on a battlefield, surrounded by almost three hundred corpses, including every single member of her family."

"Then where will she go? Does she have any relatives who can take her in?"

The doctor shakes his head. "Lord Hokage has said that he will watch over the child once she is well enough to leave the hospital. He is going to place her in the room next to…that child…and he plans to enroll her in the academy when she's ready."

"She's going to be a ninja?" The nurse's whisper is urgent and full of concern.

The doctor sighs. "Apparently…though considering how small and unresponsive she is, I don't know how effective a ninja she will be. It would be kinder to place her with a civilian family."

I ignore the two of them and stare out the window. The sky is blue and cloudless, and it makes me angry. What right does nature have to be so beautiful, when the world around me is dull and colorless?

But I can't hate the world…because it did nothing wrong. And that's what makes me angriest.


	3. A New Friend

Plans are made for me to attend the Ninja Academy a few years later. It took me a few months before I started talking again, and then, I would only talk to certain people, though by eight years old, I was functioning relatively normally again, enough to finally be enrolled. And by then, Lord Hokage, who I now call Gramps, decided that there was no longer an immediate threat to my life. But going to the Academy would be nerve-wracking. And I've been anxiously awaiting my first day.

* * *

Gramps brings me to the academy, knocking on the doorframe of a classroom. "Iruka, I've brought her today."

The teacher inside, with his hair in a spiky brown ponytail, looks out at us. "I see." Then he looks down at me. "Well, don't be shy, come on in." He seems welcoming enough, but first impressions can be deceiving. I may be young, but I know that much.

I look up at Gramps, and he nods encouragingly, patting me on the shoulder. "Go on. This is a place for you to learn. Books won't be able to help you forever. You need a teacher, and other students to compete with."

"Okay…" I look into the classroom and step inside. And I see about thirty students all sitting at desks. Half of them are paying attention to me, and the other half aren't. Well, at least there's less of a chance of making a fool of myself.

The teacher, Iruka-Sensei, nods at me. "Well, go ahead and introduce yourself."

I nod and turn to the students. "Good morning, my name is Ciara…" My voice is so low that I'd be surprised if anyone can hear me.

Iruka looks at me expectantly. "Um…what about your last name? Or maybe some hobbies?"

"Oh…" I think hard for a minute. "Um...I like reading a lot. And I like animals." Then I look up carefully at Iruka. "Oh, and Gramps says that I can't tell you my last name." He's always told me to be careful about giving out my last name in public. And to avoid it if at all possible.

Gramps coughs just outside the classroom. "Yes, now why don't you go sit down, and Iruka here can continue the lesson." His eyes flick towards the desks, where the rest of the students are sitting, some of them eyeing me carefully.

"Yeah…" I look around at the desks, and I notice that there is an open space next to a boy with bright blond hair, it's like staring at the sun without going blind. I walk up the stairs and over to his row. "Can I sit here?"

He looks at me with wide eyes as blue as the sky, so blue that I get lot in them for a second. "Uh…sure…" He moves over a little, probably to give me some space on the bench. So I sit down and slide a little closer to him, and away from the aisle.

That gets him looking at me suspiciously.

I blink and smile. "Hi…"

The suspicion melts from his face as a bright smile greets me instead. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

His voice during his little introduction is as bright as his smile, and that makes me feel better about being here. "Well, Naruto, please be nice to me."

"Alright." His grin just refuses to face from his face. "Hey, aren't you the girl who lives next door to me?"

His question surprises me. "Am I…? I don't know…I've never met any neighbors…I stay inside most of the time. I just live in the room that Gramps, I mean, Lord Hokage arranged for me."

That gets him excited. "Yeah! I've seen Gramps visiting the room next door, and whoever was inside didn't come out often. The last time I saw someone come out was…like three months ago!" If he calls the old man Gramps as well, then I suppose that it's alright for me to call him that. At least around Naruto.

But that still surprises me, since the last time I left my room actually was three months ago, and that was for a check-up at the hospital. "Oh, then I guess I probably am your neighbor. How weird…I didn't think I would meet my neighbor at school."

"Me either. Maybe we can walk home together!"

That makes me smile. "Sure."

"You two, quiet down!" Iruka glares at us, obviously annoyed. "You can meet your new classmates after class is over. Now pay attention."

My eyes widen a little at his tone, so different to the tones of the hospital staff or the ANBU who come to talk to me from time to time. He's treating me like an actual person, instead of something small and fragile, and more like a cute little animal than an actual human being. And as thanks, I give him my full and undivided attention for the rest of the day's classes.

* * *

This continues on for about a week without any incidents. And in the girls' classes, I quickly pick up flower arranging and etiquette. It's not hard for me, since I used to watch Mom do this kind of thing all the time with my aunts and cousins.

And after one such class, as I'm about to meet Naruto to walk home, a few of the girls corner me. The one in the middle grabs onto my backpack and pushes me into the dirt. "Hey loser! Quit strutting around like you're hot stuff just because you're the new girl!"

I get to my feet and brush the dirt off my clothes. "I don't strut. Strutting is for birds who are trying to find a mate."

That pisses her right off. "Come off it! I know what you're trying to pull. You're trying to act all nice and sweet so that the boys will like you! Well get this through your head, they're never going to like a girl like you, who's dull and plain, and looks like you've rolled around in the mud so much that your hair looks like an animal pooped on it!"

I glare at her coldly. "Is that all you have to say? I'm late, and my friend is waiting for me."

She scoffs loudly. "Friend? Right…you mean that idiot, Naruto, right? Well that's just perfect. Why don't you get him to like you? That way, no one else will."

And that's the last straw. "Don't you dare insult Naruto! He's nice to me, unlike the rest of you! If I wanted friends like you, I'd go ahead and be a stuck up bitch just like you!" I storm away from them, my long brown hair flapping in the wind behind me.

But the girl grabs it, and pulls hard on my ponytail. "Where do you think you're going? We're not done yet!"

I turn around to push her away, but a familiar pair of hands beat me to it. Naruto appears out of nowhere and pushes the girl by the shoulders, and pulling my hair out of her grip and she falls flat on her butt. "Don't pick on Ciara!" He's livid. "If I see you picking on her again, you're going to regret it!" And of course, the girls scramble away, and run off screaming. Naruto turns to me with a smile. "You okay?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. It'll take more than that to hurt me." Then I frown. "How did you know where I was anyway?"

He looks a little embarrassed as he scratches his cheek. "Uh, well I heard you yelling at them, so I just followed your voice. I've never heard you be that loud before, so I thought that something was wrong."

I shrug. "Doesn't matter. Now let's go home. I'm hungry."

Naruto's grin returns. "Come over to my house and I'll make you some ramen!"

I laugh a bit and grab his hand. "Alright, let's go!"

For the next four years, I endure the harsh comments, the bullying, and the typical rejection that I get for being friends with Naruto. And though it takes me some time to figure it out, between the cold stares that the adults give Naruto, and from the instability I sense in his chakra, a sensitivity I inherited from Dad, I soon figure out exactly what's hiding inside of Naruto. I'd overheard Dad once at a secret meeting. I'd never told him, and it's too late to tell him now. But I know that the Nine-Tailed Fox is inside of Naruto. A demon with incredible power. And with that knowledge, I come to realize that somewhere inside me, is something powerful and mysterious as well.

But being rebuffed by everyone is fine with me, I never wanted to be popular anyway. And just so that they don't have anything extra to tease me about, I get lazy on tests and achieve only average and a bit above average scores, despite the fact that I could answer every question perfectly.

* * *

In my free time, I hang out with Naruto, and I study medical books that I get from Gramps. Sometimes, I hear a faint voice in my head, telling me how to do it, showing me how to use the medical ninjutsu on myself, that mysterious power that is locked somewhere inside of me. And the first time I successfully heal myself, I'm ecstatic.

Then, I go into secret training all by myself, trying to remember as much of what Dad taught me as possible. Even as a kid, he would bring me down to the training room and show me how to perform jutsu, even though I wasn't able to even produce chakra at the time. He thought that it would be better to teach me first, before I have the chance to accidentally destroy something.

Almost three years after I nearly died, my ability to produce chakra skyrocketed, which is one of the reasons why Gramps enrolled me into the academy then. But I still remember my old lessons. And I put them to use when I disappear to train.

And in one training session, as I shoot chakra out of my hands and feet, trying to perfect the jutsu that I've been having so much trouble with, the power explodes outwards, taking down every tree in the clearing. I stare down at my hands, and I smile. "Finally…I've taken the first step." I make the seals again, focusing chakra into my palms and into the soles of my feet. "Wind Style: Waning Crescent Dance!"

The wind explodes around me in a flurry of motion, and in an instant, this section of forest is a clearing. I laugh happily at my handiwork. "Yes! I've got my Wind Style down!" Then I clench my fist and grin. "Now, next up is fire…"


	4. Graduation Day

Graduation is coming up soon for those of us at the ninja academy in the Hidden Leaf Village. And I plan to ace the final test on my first try, with little to no effort. I could cut class, but I arrive early, like usual. And I watch from the back as the usual comedy routine starts up after Iruka-Sensei drags Naruto back from one of his prank runs. I swear that Naruto gets into more trouble in one day than I could manage in a year.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto!" Iruka really starts chewing him out. "You failed the graduation test last time, and the time before that. Tomorrow, you've got another chance, and you're messing up again!" Naruto just humphs at him, which irritates Iruka even more. And our teacher goes and points at all of us. "Fine, because you missed it, Naruto, everyone will review the Transformation Jutsu."

Everyone starts groaning and grumbling about it like it's some kind of horrendous punishment, but they all line up anyway, and Sakura eagerly goes first. "Alright, Sakura here. Let's do it. Transform!" She makes the hand sign, and in a puff of smoke, she goes and turns into Iruka.

"Transformed into me. Good." He nods approvingly, but I feel like gagging. I hate this jutsu. Transforming into someone else just feels wrong to me.

"Yay! I did it! Yes!" Sakura jumps up and down excitedly, then looks at Sasuke. "Sasuke, did you see that?"

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka calls Sasuke up, but he couldn't care less as he steps up to take his turn. He transforms without a word, turning into Iruka without a single problem. Iruka seems a bit perplexed by the suddenness of it, but he nods. "Uh, good."

"Next, Ciara." Iruka looks at me expectantly, but I don't move. "Would you please come up and transform? Being stubborn isn't going to win you any points."

I roll my eyes and go to the front. "Fine." I fold my hands together. "Transform." And I turn into a perfect replica, not of Iruka, but of a rabbit that hangs out behind the school.

Iruka looks at me and his eye twitches. "An animal transformation, interesting. Any particular reason why you chose to do that?"

I transform back and shrug. "I don't like transforming into guys, and last I checked, Sensei, you fall into that category." And I stalk off back to my desk to watch Naruto take his test.

"Next, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto grumbles a little, but steps up to give this a shot. He puts his hands together and yells. "Transform!" A burst of smoke erupts around him, and I slap my hand to my forehead as I see that he's gone and transformed himself into a naked girl. And he even blows Iruka a kiss.

"Huh!?" Iruka is completely shocked, and he nearly collapses from that shock, blood dripping like blasting faucets from his nose..

"Gotcha! That's my Sexy Jutsu!" Naruto starts cracking up at his prank. And I have to admit, seeing Iruka get knocked on his ass was actually really funny.

But he's not about to take that shit from Naruto. "Cut the stupid tricks! This is your last warning!"

And since it looks like class is over, I decide to quietly sneak out the window, my favorite means of entry and escape from this place. Though I get the feeling that Naruto's detention will involve cleaning all of his graffiti off the Hokage Stone Faces.

* * *

For about five minutes after I get home, I practice all the jutsu that we've learned and when it eventually comes time for the testing, I go in looking relatively unimpressive. But when I'm all alone in front of Iruka-Sensei and Mizuki-Sensei, I finally let them see my true colors.

"Alright Ciara, let's see what you can do. Perform the Clone Jutsu for us." Iruka looks at me, expecting something along the lines of my usual little tricks. "And no funny business this time." _Yep...definitely expecting a trick..._

I sigh and get serious, folding my fingers together and concentrating. "Clone Jutsu!" And in an instant, I create a whole thirty clones that fill up the room.

Both Iruka and Mizuki look at me in amazement. And Iruka drops his clipboard. "How did you do that? You're just an academy student!"

I smirk at him, then shrug lightly. "Hey, this is the actual graduation test, so I figured I'd stop pretending to be an average and slightly eccentric little kid and show you the real me. Still eccentric, though, that part wasn't a lie."

"I…see." Iruka hands me a headband. "Well, you pass. This headband proves that you've properly graduated from the academy. Well done."

I take the headband, braid it into my hair and leave the room. But when I get outside, I see Naruto sitting on a swing, all alone. The adults glare at him, like he is a disgusting monster. And I know why. Despite the taboo on talking about it, my uncle had told me about Naruto, and the fox spirit inside of him. He always said that the fox was similar to our guardian spirit, but that the fox hated the world so much that it tried to destroy everything it saw. He always told me not to pity Naruto, not to hurt him, but to try to come to understand him. But before I could even meet Naruto, my clan was killed and I was isolated.

So I walk over to Naruto and sit behind him on the same swing. "Cheer up. It could be worse."

"But I failed, again. I suck at the Clone Jutsu" He groans and shakes his head. "I hate this."

I lean back against his back and bump my head against his. "Well, stay optimistic and stay strong, and someday, you'll get everything you want. I promise you that."

"Thanks Ciara…you're the best friend I could ever ask for."

But our nice conversation is interrupted when we hear something unpleasant. "There, you see him." A lady looks in our direction, prompting her friend to look at us as well.

"It's that boy. I heard he's the only one who failed." And her glare just makes me want to hit her, or use her for target practice.

"Hmph! Well it serves him right." The contempt in her voice is obvious.

"Just imagine what would happen if he became a ninja. I mean he's the boy who…"

"Shh…we're not allowed to talk about that."

And there, I lose it. I get up from the swing and storm over to the two of them. "Hey you two bitches! Shut your damn mouths. If you've decided to condemn my friend without giving a damn good reason, then you have no right to speak at all."

One of them frowns at me. "You shouldn't associate with that boy. You have no idea what he is."

"I know exactly what he is you ignorant bitch." I hiss angrily at her, and my glare is almost enough to kill on the spot. "I'm not nearly as ignorant as you seem to believe. So leave him alone, or I'll show you what kind of a temper I've got. I know the truth, the whole truth. So the next person to disrespect Naruto in front of me is going to learn exactly what I'm like when I get angry." I turn my back on them and notice that Naruto is gone, so I decide to just go home instead of hanging around here.

* * *

I finally arrive home, after going for a run around the forest, and after I make myself something to eat, old Grandpa Hokage pays me a visit. "Congratulations on graduating, Ciara. And thank you for standing up for Naruto." Then he looks at me curiously. "Why did you do it?"

I drop all pretenses, since he should know what I am. "I know what's inside of Naruto. And I don't judge him for it, because I can sympathize with him. Because I'm like him. Do you remember when you found me inside my family compound, the only survivor?"

He nods. "I remember."

I touch my stomach as I remember that day. "The night before you found me, I was dying, bleeding out from a deep wound to the stomach. My uncle…he healed me enough to stabilize me. And before he died, he used a sealing jutsu on me. There was a creature, made of fire and light, flying in the sky above us. Whatever it was…he sealed it inside me to save my life." I touch my head, trying to remember myself. "Sometimes…it's like I can hear it. That same whispering voice. It's…kind, and peaceful, but powerful, and wise as well. It's hard to explain, but I kind of understand what's going on with Naruto. The adults know, and that's why they hate him. And if they knew about me, they would probably hate me as well."

He gazes at me seriously. "Is that why you haven't said anything about this before?" I nod, and he sighs. "I believe that I know what is inside of you. I may be wrong, but listen carefully to me. What Naruto is, and what you may be, are called jinchuuriki. You have huge, sentient beings made of chakra inside of you. And the fact that they are sealed there are what make you jinchuuriki. If you can continue to be his friend, I would appreciate it. Loneliness is not something that he should have to endure. Neither of you should."

A painful smile rises to my lips. "Of course. He's been my friend for years, and I'm not going to turn my back on him because of this. And I can only hope that he feels the same when he finally finds out about me…" That's my biggest fear, that he'll find out about me, and think I'm a monster. After all, he's the goofy prankster, and I'm the weird, eccentric loner.

"So, do you want to keep this a secret? That you're a jinchuuriki?" He looks at me carefully, almost tenderly.

I nod. "Yes. I've been ignored most of my life. And if this got out, that would turn to hatred, so it's not much of an upgrade."

"I see." He nods and smiles. "That's wise of you." Then he pats me on the head. "Jinchuuriki are gifted with incredible power. They are each unique and powerful. So be careful who you tell. In any case, I'm glad that Naruto has a friend like you."

"I do my best." I smile at him, thinking of Naruto the whole time.

"Oh, and there is something else." Gramps gets serious. "I've decided to assign you to a special team, in light of your…unconventional heritage."

"A special team?" It sounds a little dubious to me, but Gramps wouldn't do anything seriously mean to me, so it can't possibly be that bad. "They'd better not be weird or anything."

Don't worry, I think you'll like them." He pats me on the head one more time before leaving. And I have to admit, I like having him look after me, he's a nice grandpa figure for me, and now I get to sorting out my registration papers and photo.


	5. Squad Twelve

After I finish handing in my registration, I get to hear that Naruto actually managed to find a way to graduate. But with orientation and our team assignments coming up soon, I change my clothes to show that I've gone from student to ninja. And with a much more practical, though flashy outfit, I finally go to the orientation. I tug a little at the long sleeves of my shirt, pulling the shoulder slits open. And instead of taking a seat, I just stand at the back and lean against the wall.

Watching all of my old classmates file into the room is irritating and somewhat entertaining. Ino and Sakura push at each other to get into the room, stepping in basically at the same time. But they both end up yelling. "I'm first!" And they try to push each other back, like a couple of children fighting over a toy.

"I win again Sakura!"

"Give it up! I had to look back to see you, my toe was at least a tenth of an inch ahead!"

"Have you always been this delusional?" I roll my eyes at the two of them. Ino's right, Sakura is delusional, but Ino isn't any better, she just can't see it.

And predictably, Naruto gets all red when he sees Sakura. He's had a crush on her for so long that I can't even count the number of times he's looked at her and blushed. And when she runs towards him, he waves. "Hi Sakura, what's up?"

"Move it!" Sakura's obsession with Sasuke makes her push Naruto right over just to get to her crush. "Uh, good morning Sasuke." He spares her a single glance, and she gets a little less shy. "Mind if I sit next to you?" _Can you say desperate?_

"Back off, Forehead, I'm sitting next to Sasuke." Ino grabs Sakura's arm, trying to claim Sasuke as her territory instead. _Make that double desperate._

And of course, their argument just gets loud and obnoxious, and they all start fighting over who gets to sit next to him. But when Naruto gets right up in Sasuke's face, the sparks between the two of them are obvious and volatile.

Sakura gets all worked up over it, her pink hair nearly starting to frizz. "Naruto! Stop glaring at Sasuke!"

The entertainment begins when the guy in front of their bench bumps into Naruto. And all the girls freak out over Sasuke's unfortunate first kiss. And the two of them start coughing and retching. So before the girls can beat Naruto to a pulp, I roll my eyes and raise my voice. "You know, you should probably all sit down, orientation is gonna start any minute now."

Ino glares at me. "Shouldn't you sit down as well? Or does no one want to sit next to you?" That pompous airhead knows nothing about me. If I wanted to sit, I'd have snatched the seat next to Naruto. I fact, I probably should have, since it would have solved several problems between Naruto and Sasuke. Mostly by putting me in the middle.

I shrug. "I like being next to the window. Makes for a quick escape from stupid people."

When Iruka finally arrives, everyone is finally calm. And he gets started with the graduation speech. "As of today, you are all ninjas. To get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now, you are only genin, first level ninjas. All the genin will be grouped into three-man squads. Each squad will be led by a jounin, an elite ninja." That's interesting enough, but frankly, I don't really care who I end up with. I only really have one friend in this class.

Iruka continues his explanations. "We wanted each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads."

I don't really pay attention to the placements, until finally, a particular squad comes up. "Squad Seven. Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura Haruno." Naruto gets to his feet to celebrate, and Sakura looks pretty put out. "And Sasuke Uchiha." It's Naruto's turn to be down in the dumps while Sakura celebrates getting placed in the same squad as Sasuke.

"Squad Eight. Hinata Hyuga. Kiba Inuzuka. And Shino Aburame." That's an interesting squad, all with their own specialties. Byakugan, dogs and bugs.

"Squad Ten. Ino Yamanaka. Shikamaru Nara. And Choji Akimichi." Another team with special jutsu up their alleys

"And squad twelve. Akito Takara, Hiro Kazaki, the two of you are with Ciara." Iruka closes up his papers and sighs. "You three had better not get into any trouble. You boys always to seem to find some way to get into as much trouble as possible with as little effort as you can manage."

"Will do, Sensei!" Hiro grins at Iruka as our old teacher shakes his head wearily. And the other one, Akito, just shakes his head, smiling away.

But Naruto is taking serious issue with his placement. "Iruka-Sensei, why is a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?"

Iruka looks irritated now. "Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students. Naruto, you had the worst scores. To create a balanced group, we put the best student with the worst student."

And with a fight breaking out between Naruto and Sasuke, Iruka calls for attention again with a pointed cough. "After lunch, you'll meet your new jounin teachers. Until then, class dismissed."

"Finally…" I sigh and turn to the window. "Later, Naruto. Try to get along with your new squadmates!" And I jump right out the window and walk off like I don't have a care in the world.

* * *

I take off to eat lunch alone, and find my favorite perch on top of the roof of the academy. Once I'm finished eating, I hear the bell ring for the last class of our academy careers. Since I don't feel like running late, instead of running through the halls, I just swing in through the window and sit on the windowsill until Iruka dismisses us for the last time, letting us go off with our new jounin instructors.

My instructor arrives second to last and she looks rather normal compared to the other jounin who came in for their teams. She has long black hair and bright blue eyes. And she seems cheerful enough as she leads us outside to meet in a training area.

She smiles at us. "So, let's get started with some introductions. I am Yuki Hitotsu. I'm twenty-five years old, and I've been a jounin for eight years. I'm a taijutsu and genjutsu specialist, and I can use water and earth element ninjutsu. And my hobbies are gardening and board games." Then she motions to us. "Alright, so how about you three?"

Akito offers up his information first. "My name is Akito Takara, I'm thirteen years old. My hobbies include cooking and reading, and tinkering with whatever tech I can get my hands on. My ninjutsu specialties are water and lightning elements, I'm not really a genjutsu type, and my taijutsu is definitely past the level of most of the other graduates." Then he grins at Hiro. "Though if you want to see a real taijutsu expert, Hiro here is better than I am."

Hiro grins back, then smirks at Yuki-Sensei. "Hiro Kazaki. Also thirteen years old. My hobbies mostly involve fitness. My ninjutsu style is the earth element, and I specialize in taijutsu, and have no aptitude for genjutsu at all. I have a very hands-on kind of style, which is why my earth element and my taijutsu go really well together."

Now, they all look at me, so I flick my eyes between them and sigh. "My name is Ciara...I am from the Shiryugu Clan…" I swallow nervously, then continue. "I'm twelve years old. My hobbies are reading and writing, and studying biology and anatomy. My combat specialties include affinities for wind and fire, and I'm self-trained in the use of medical ninjutsu. I don't use taijutsu, except for what is part of my ninjutsu. I'm fast, but I'm still small, so I'm not very strong, and I can't make use of taijutsu effectively at this point. But I do have an aptitude for genjutsu, though I haven't learned any yet. And…" But I freeze, because this isn't something that I want to tell them, either about being a jinchuuriki or about the chance that I have a hidden Kekkai Genkai. But I don't know if I inherited it or not. If I did, then I will probably develop more chakra natures as I mature. If not, then it would be silly to mention it, then turn out to not even carry it.

Yuki-Sensei pats me on the shoulder. "It's alright, Lord Hokage informed me about your special circumstances. If you don't want to say it out loud, then no one is going to force you to."

The two guys look at me, and neither of them looks at me with the cold eyes that people look at Naruto with. They seem accepting enough, but that is no guarantee that they will be fine with it after finding out that I'm not totally human.

Just as I'm about to open my mouth, Akito touches my shoulder. "Forget about it. If it's something that you keep in reserve in case of an emergency, then you should keep it a secret. It can be our ace in the hole. You don't have to tell us unless something really bad happens. And if that happens, I don't think either of us are going to mind whatever crazy power you decide to whip out."

Hiro nods in agreement. "Besides, you've listed more than enough skills already. Any more and you might just be worthy of being worshipped."

I feel better now, since they aren't determined to pry into my business. "Thank you. I'll tell you both…eventually. It's just not something that easy to talk about."

Yuki-Sensei nods and claps her hand. "Well, now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, there are a few things that I should explain." She points to Akito and Hiro. "Do you two know why you were held back a year for no apparent reason?"

"Uh, because we kept skipping class?" Hiro chuckles and Akito shakes his head, a wry smile on his face.

But Yuki-Sensei smiles. "No, although that was probably the official reason. The real reason is because Ciara graduated this year, and Lord Hokage decided to put together a special team that would fit with her. Like a preventative measure against unwanted attention. The particular circumstances are…not something that should be broadcasted publicly, and her teammates had to be skilled in their own right, as well as partly compatible with her. And as I'm sure you've all figured out, between the three of you, you already have a full complement of elemental ninjutsu."

Akito nods. "Yeah, I noticed that. Though it seemed weird to me because it's like putting a team of elites together right out of the gate. So it made me a bit suspicious."

"Well done, Akito. You figured it out quickly." Yuki-Sensei smiles. "You are also a special unit, designed to be able to work together as well as split up to support other teams."

Now, I'm confused. "Wait, but why would you make a unit like that, especially one made up of just genin?"

"Technicalities. Because there are certain rules that you'll need to adhere to later, this squad was set up so that the three of you would be able to work around those rules. But for the most part, you will go on missions separately either as support units or as parts of a main force." She smiles seriously at us. "Now, I suggest that you all go home and start getting ready, because training is going to be rougher now that the three of you are together. And your assignments could come at any time, so you have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Normally, I would have to test your abilities. But you've all been assessed by Lord Hokage, and you won't have to go through the normal procedures for becoming genin. Congratulations, you are now officially genin-level ninja. Now, hop to it. I'm sure that you'll be getting quite busy in the next few days."

So, after that rather bizarre meeting, I head home and start putting together a bunch of kits that are specialized for certain types of missions. One for reconnaissance, one for infiltration, one for combat, one for retrieval, and one for general purposes, which makes it the heaviest of all the kits. And before I know it, it's night.


	6. C-Rank Mission to the Land of Waves

I end up being sent a note from Gramps around midday, and it seems that I'm being sent as a support unit on an escort mission to the Land of Waves. But when I meet the team at the village gates with my general purposes kit, I see that it's Team 7, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and their sensei, Kakashi.

I wave to Naruto with a smile. "Hey Naruto! So how'd you manage to score a mission like this? I thought that you were stuck on D-Rank missions!"

He grins right back at me. "I asked Gramps for it, of course. I can be persuasive if I wanna be."

"Yeah right." I roll my eyes and try not to gag. "You probably annoyed him into giving it to you."

"Hey!" He pouts a little. "Don't be like that. Anyway, have you seen anyone headed in this direction? Apparently we're still waiting for someone to show up. Gramps is sending someone along with us. Not that we need anyone else…" He starts grumbling a little, obviously not realizing that I'm the back-up he's referring to.

But I look at their sensei carefully, doing a quick physical evaluation of him. "I'm going to hazard a guess and assume that you are Kakashi Hatake?"

He nods. "And you are…?" Then his visible eye widens. "Are you the specialist that the Hokage assigned along on this mission?"

I nod. "Yes. My name is Ciara Shiryugu, I graduated with these three. I am from Yuki-Sensei's team, Squad Twelve. I am the medical specialist, and am being assigned to this mission as support. Probably just to make sure that no one gets seasick, or eats something poisonous."

Kakashi looks at me in surprise, and a flicker of what looks like recognition flashes in his eye. "Well, Then I suppose that a medic would be a good thing to have along for this trip. We are headed to the Land of Waves, and the chances of an accident happening increase the longer the mission takes."

The client on the other hand, he is a grumpy old man who seems to like drinking too much. He looks at me and immediately gets to insulting me. "Hmph, looks like another useless little girl. How many of these kids are you dragging along on this mission?"

I ignore him and keep my focus on Kakashi. And I show him the contents of my kit. "Okay, so I keep my poisons in this section, and my antidotes opposite them in the green bottles, as opposed to the purple ones. Blue is for antiseptics, and red is vitamin shots. But I've labeled them with a special code according to potency, and it probably won't make any sense to any of you, so try not to rummage around in my kit. If you need something, just ask."

Sakura looks confused. "But…why aren't you with your own squad? Aren't we supposed to work in four person squads?"

I try not to sigh at her question. "My squad was only formed for technical reasons. Because of our very diverse skill sets, we're actually meant to be individual support units. We can be sent on missions that are suited to our respective talents. Which is why I was selected to be a support unit for this mission, owing to its length and possibility of requiring a medical specialist."

A frown appears on Sasuke's face. "We only just graduated from the academy. How can you already be a medical specialist? That kind of ability takes years to train."

I shoot him a flat stare. "I showed none of my talents while we were at the academy. I already got enough attention for being friends with this dolt, I didn't want any extra attention." I stare pointedly at Naruto, before turning back to Sasuke. "I should also point out that I'm not useless in a combat situation either. I've got a dual chakra nature." At this point, I turn back to Kakashi. "Between me and my two squad mates, Hiro and Akito, we have a complete set of the five basic elements at our disposal."

This seems to impress him. "Interesting. In that case, welcome to the mission. We'll be leaving shortly." Then he glances at Naruto. "And since it looks like the two of you are friends, do you think you could keep a lid on him?"

I lean over to look at Naruto behind him. "I can try, but I make no promises. After all, this is Naruto we're talking about." _And that idiot can't be controlled by anybody._

Ignoring Kakashi, Naruto skips right out of the gate ahead of us. "Yeah! Alright!"

Sakura shakes her head. "What are you getting so excited about, Naruto?"

"This is the first time I ever left the village! I'm a traveler now, believe it!" Naruto looks around like he's never see outside the village before. But considering how often he climbs onto the Hokage stone faces, he must have at least seen the outside form a distance.

The client points at Naruto irritably. "Am I supposed to trust my life to this runt? He's a joke!"

Kakashi takes it in good stride. "He's with me, and I'm a jounin, so you don't need to worry."

But I can already tell that Naruto is pretty close to exploding. He turns around and points defiantly at the client. "Hey! Never insult a ninja, it's a big mistake! And I'm one of the greatest ninja ever!" Naruto has a huge grin on his face. "Someday, I'm going to be Hokage, and you'll look up to me! My name's Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!"

The client takes a swig from his bottle. "Hokage are powerful and wise. You are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage, I'll sprout wings and fly."

"Ah! Shut up!" Naruto vehemently defends himself. "I'm willing to do anything to become Hokage, no matter what it takes! And when I do, everyone will have to admit that I'm the top ninja! Including you!"

The client scoffs. "You can become Hokage ten times over and to me, you'll still be nobody." _That's about the same way that most of the village feels. Though it doesn't mean that Naruto isn't going to prove them wrong._

Predictably, Naruto loses it. "Argh! I'm gonna make you pay for that right now!"

"I told you, you're supposed to protect the client, not attack him." Kakashi holds onto Naruto's collar as the client starts walking off towards his home country. Poor Kakashi has no idea what he's in for as Naruto's teacher.

* * *

We start off on our long mission, and I keep my senses extended, just in case. I've been sensing something faint for a while, but so far, whatever it is hasn't gotten close enough, or active enough, to warrant my full attention.

"Say, Mr. Tazuna. You country is the Land of Waves, right?" Sakura, as inquisitive as always, jumps into her questions for the client quickly.

The old man is still grumpy about answering her questions though. "Yeah…what of it?"

Sakura turns to Kakashi. "Kakashi-Sensei, there are ninja in that country too, aren't there?"

"No, there are no ninja in the Land of Waves." That seems a straightforward enough answer. But Kakashi feels the need to be overly informative. "But in other countries, there are hidden villages, each with their own different customs and cultures, where ninja reside. To the people of this continent, the existence of shinobi villages means strength, military strength. In other words, that's how they protect themselves, and maintain the balance of power with neighboring countries. The ninja villages are not controlled by any government, they're independent and have equal status."

And here is where his lecture becomes relevant to her question. "Now, a small island like the Land of Waves, has natural protection from the sea. So, there's no need for a ninja village. The five ancient lands that possess shinobi villages are the lands of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. They each occupy vast territories. Together, they are known as the Five Great Shinobi Nations. The Land of Fire, has the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The Land of Water, the Village Hidden in the Mist. The Land of Lightning, the Village Hidden in the Clouds. The Land of Wind, the Village Hidden in the Sand. And the Land of Earth, the Village Hidden in the Stones. Only the leaders of these hidden villages are permitted the name Kage, which means shadow. Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage, Tsuchikage. These are the leaders, the five shadows that reign over thousands of ninja."

Sakura gets overly excited by that explanation. "Then Lord Hokage's really important!"

For some reason, Kakashi seems to sense Sakura and Naruto's skeptical thoughts. "Hey! You all just doubted Lord Hokage, didn't you? That's what you were thinking." The two of them deny it, and Kakashi cools off. "Well, anyway, there are no ninja battles in a C-Rank mission. So, you can relax."

"Then we're not going to run into any foreign enemy ninja, or anything like that!" Sakura seems so certain, and yet, I still feel a little on edge. And Tazuna isn't looking too confident either.

Kakashi laughs at Sakura's comment. "Not likely."

But when I sense two ninja following us, I drag my feet a little, trying to catch Kakashi's attention without alerting whoever is following us to my intentions. I'm trying to look like I'm just tired of walking. I can only hope that Kakashi gets the message I'm trying to send him. He does look around like he notices something, but I can't be sure that he's noticed the same thing I have.

* * *

And despite this being a C-ranked mission, it seems that a battle has found us anyway. Two ninja appear from behind us, flying through the air and skidding along the ground as they quickly chain up Kakashi. It catches us all by surprise, even though I've been trying to track them for a while. Seemingly kill Kakashi, even though I can still sense his chakra, even after they tear him apart. _Okay...so where is he now?_

I jump and slide several feet backward as the two ninja go after Naruto. Since I am the medic, I have to be the last one standing, interfering in this battle while Sasuke and Sakura are still up would be a violation of my post, at least, according to the rules imprinted on me by the medical ninja who got me started.

Sasuke immediately swoops in and ties the two ninjas to a tree using their own chain, as well as a single shuriken and kunai. He lands on their shoulders and kicks them apart, forcing them to split up. One goes after Naruto, and the other goes after Sakura and Tazuna. And judging from their headbands, they're from the Hidden Mist.

Sakura goes on the defensive, holding a kunai in front of her and getting in front of Tazuna. "Stay behind me!" Despite her bravado, her stance is weak, and she has a clear look of panic on her face as she tries to hide it with determination.

But her moment to shine passes quickly, as Sasuke jumps in front of her, ready to hold off the attack. I sense Kakashi moving around, since the deception he used worked. I stay put and keep a very close eye on what happens. In a flash, Kakashi manages to subdue both of the ninja. And he looks totally cool and nonchalant doing it. "Hi."

With the attackers unconscious, Kakashi turns to Naruto. "Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just didn't think you'd freeze up like that." And then, he approaches the other group. "Good job, Sasuke, very smooth. You too, Sakura."

And just to rub salt in the wound, Sasuke turns to Naruto. "Hey, you're not hurt are you? Scaredy-cat."

And that just sets Naruto right off. "Sasuke!"

"Naruto!" Kakashi calls sharply for attention. "Stand still. These ninja have poison in their claws. We need to take it out of you quickly." That gets Naruto freaking out. "You have to open the wound and remove it. It's in your blood, so don't move around. That spreads the poison." And now, Kakashi sounds less than impressed. "By the way, Mr. Tazuna…"

"Yeah, what?" He looks more than just a little guilty now.

"We need to talk." Those four words coming out of Kakashi's mouth sound more like an omen of doom than an invitation to tea. So when Kakashi ties up the two ninja, he gives us the report. "They're chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice."

The ninja glare at Kakashi. "How did you know about our ambush?"

"A puddle? On a clear day? When it hasn't rained in weeks?" Then he glances at me. "And something was making our medic rather fidgety. Putting two and two together, I figured out that something was up." He turns a bit towards me. "Lord Hokage never told me that you had sensor abilities."

I keep my eyes trained on the two Mist ninja. "They're not strong, I was working more on instinct and bad feelings than anything else. I knew someone was following us, I just had no idea who." I'd rather not exaggerate my abilities, since that kind of boasting could get us killed, now that there's enemies involved.

"In that case, why'd you leave it for the genin to do the fighting?" Tazuna raises a fairly good point here.

Kakashi nods. "I could have taken them out quickly. But then, I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was. And what they were after." Kakashi looks suspiciously at Tazuna, because obviously, the old man has been hiding something.

"Hm? What are you getting at?" The old man still looks rather guilty to me, but I'm kind of interested to hear his explanation.

And so is Kakashi, it would seem. "This. I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or, if they were after you, the master bridge-builder. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection, from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, it would be a B-Rank mission or higher. Our task was simply to get you to your destination, and protect you while you finished building your bridge. If we knew we'd be fielding attacks from enemy ninja, we would have staffed differently, and charged for the cost of a B mission. Apparently you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission."

Sakura agrees. "We're genin, this is too advanced for our level of training. We should go back. And I really think we need to treat Naruto's wound and get the poison out as soon as possible."

Kakashi regards Naruto carefully. "Naruto's hand could become a problem. I guess we should go back to the village."

Naruto, the fool, is getting way too worked up. He decides to stab his own hand to open the wound and get the poison out before even letting me have a chance to see it. "Why am I so different? Why am I always…Urgh!"

Sakura is astonished, to say the least. "Naruto, stop that! What are you doing?"

"I worked so hard to get here! Pushing myself until it hurt! Training alone for hours, anything to get stronger, to reach my dream." Blood drips from his hand, now open to the air. "I will never back down again, and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this wound, I make this pledge. Believe it!" Then, he speaks to Tazuna. "Bridge-builder, I will complete this mission and protect you with this kunai knife. A real ninja never gives up, and neither will I. Don't you guys worry about me, I'll be fine. Now let's go!"

Kakashi, on the other hand, just has to burst Naruto's bubble. "Naruto…uh, that was really cool, how you took the poison out and all. But if you lose any more blood, you're going to die."

Naruto turns a little blue, and I can see sweat pouring down his face. "Uh…uh…uh…"

Kakashi just makes the situation even worse. "Good idea to stop the bleeding now, seriously."

"No! No! No! I'm too young for it to all end like this!" Naruto starts waving his hands around, making the bleeding even stronger. "No! No! No! No!"

So as he bleeds out, I roll my eyes and sigh. "He was kidding you idiot! Why do you think I'm here? It's just in case something like this happened." I grab his arm and yank him towards me. "Honestly, you're way too rash."

He trembles a little in my grip. "So, I'm not gonna die?"

"No, you're not." I rummage in my kit and take out one of the antidote bottles. I open it, and pour a little of the antidote into a small cup and hand it to Naruto. "Drink that, it should purge your system of any residual traces of the poison." Then I take out another bottle and dab a little of the solution onto a small ball of cotton. "This is going to sting a little, but I need to disinfect the wound, just to make sure it doesn't get infect and swell up, and turn blue and green and purple."

He gulps down the antidote noisily and gasps for breath. "Swell up!?" He hisses as I press the antiseptic to his wound. "Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts!"

"Hold still!" I wrestle with his arm and keep it steady while I finish applying the solution. Then, I put it away and hold my hand over his. "Now to stop all of the bleeding." A soft golden glow appears around my hand, the chakra becoming strong enough to be visible. And quickly enough, the blood stops flowing. I mop up the rest of the blood with a clean cotton ball, and I start wrapping his hand in bandages. "This should keep it from getting infected. And you should be healed soon." But just barely, out of the corner of my eye, I see the cut seal itself up. _Amazing…his body can heal itself…could it be that fox inside him? I wonder if it would care enough to heal its host's body…_

Then, with his hand all bandaged up, I whack him on the head. "Now don't be so hasty when there's a medic around! If you get injured, just believe in me, and I should be able to do something."

Naruto grins nervously. "Alright. Believe it!"


	7. Zabuza Momochi

**I've been rather single-mindedly focused on writing for Fairy Tail over the past few months. And while that means that I've neglected most of my other stories, it also means that I now have a much higher quality of writing to present for each of my stories, thanks to all of my Fairy Tail practice. But I am quite sorry about the accidental hiatus. I swear that it wasn't on purpose, it kinda just happened between school, exams, and Fairy Tail.**

 **I've also gone over the other chapters to touch them up a bit, and I'll be striving to increase my average word count by leaps and bounds from now on. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the word count average above three thousand within another couple dozen chapters. And like my Fairy Tail fic, this one is going to be a very long one. Though for now, I'll settle for making some progressively longer chapters.**

* * *

Because of Naruto's persistent insistence on completing the mission, we continue on the road and eventually board a boat to the Land of Waves. And I keep a careful eye on everyone to make sure that no one ends up seasick. The last thing we need is for someone to start puking their guts out because they can't handle a little bumpy water.

As visibility worsens and we head into the ever denser fog, shivers make my spine tingle. "This fog's so thick, you can't see anything." Sakura uses a hushed tone, obviously worried that someone is going to hear us.

The boatman finally speaks up. "The bridge isn't far now. Our destination's just ahead. The Land of Waves."

And as the bridge comes into sight, it's an impressive structure, to be sure. And Naruto is over-excited by the view. "Whoa! It's huge!"

"What? Quiet!" The boatman hushes Naruto. "I told you, no noise. Why do you think we're traveling like this, huh? Cutting off the engine and rowing…moving through the dense fog…so they don't see us."

Naruto covers his mouth, but Kakashi is the one making noise now, his voice a low growl. "Mr. Tazuna. Before we reach the pier, I want to ask you something. The men who are after you…I need to know why. If you don't tell us, then I'm afraid I'll have to end this mission when we drop you ashore."

There's silence as we all watch the bridge-builder carefully. "I have no choice but to tell you…no…" He looks up at us from under his hat. "I want you to know the truth. Like you said, this is beyond the scope of the original mission. The one who seeks my life is a very short man who casts a very long and deadly shadow."

It sounds ominous to me, and to Kakashi as well. "A deadly shadow? Who is it?"

"You know him. At least, I'm sure you've heard his name before." Judging by Tazuna's assertion, this guy is well-known, and probably very shady. "He's one of the wealthiest men in the world. The shipping magnum, Gato.

"Gato?" Kakashi's eyes widen. "Of Gato Transport? He's a business leader, everyone knows him.

That gets Naruto excited again. "Who? Who? What? What?"

I elbow him in the ribs. "If you'll keep quiet, then maybe we can get the story without alerting the entire country that we're here."

Tazuna nods. "Gato is a very powerful tycoon from a famous company, that's true. But below the surface, with the same ruthless methods he uses to take over businesses and nations, he sells drugs and contraband using gangs and ninja."

It's true that I've heard stories about ninjas doing, or being used to do terrible things, but while I understand things like assassination, drugs are a whole different might just be the medical ninja in me, but I have a particular distaste for any ninja who would use their skills to propagate the trading of drugs and other illegal goods.

It would seem that Tazuna feels the same, for the bitterness in his voice doesn't fade. "It was one year ago when Gato first set his sight on the Land of Waves. He came to our island and used his vast wealth to take total control of our transport and shipping. Anyone who tried to stand in his way will simply disappear. In an island nation, a man who controls the sea controls everything. Finance. Government. Our very lives. But there's one thing he fears. The bridge. When it is complete, it will join us to the land and that will break his control." He looks up at the bridge towering over our heads. "I am the bridge builder." And that one phrase explains everything.

"So that's it." Sakura catches on quickly as well. "Since you're in charge of the bridge, you're standing in this gangster's way."

"That means those guys we fought in the forest…they were working for Gato." Sasuke's assumption seems the most likely scenario. That, or they work for someone who works for Gato. And all of that just makes Naruto strain his brain.

Kakashi turns back to Tazuna. "I don't understand. If you knew he was dangerous, knew he'd send ninja to eliminate you, why did you hide that from us?"

The old man twitches a bit. "Because the Land of Waves is a small, impoverished nation. Even our nobles have little money. The common people who are building this bridge, they can't pay for an A or B-ranked mission. It's too expensive. If you end this mission when you drop me ashore, there will be no bridge. They'll assassinate me before I reach home." A wry expression crosses his face. "But, don't feel bad about that. Of course, my sweet little grandson will be upset, he'll cry 'Granddad, I want my Granddad'." That's the opening of the wound. "Oh, and my daughter will condemn the ninja of the Hidden Leaf, denouncing and blaming you for abandoning her father, and living her life in sorrow." And there's the salt. "Ah well, it's not your fault, forget it." And some lemon juice for good measure.

There's some collective sighing from the others, and Kakashi has to make a snap decision. It's basically a combination of guilt tripping and blackmail. "Well, I guess we have no other choice. We'll have to keep guarding you."

"Ah!?" The old man perks up immediately. "I'm very grateful!"

I roll my eyes and look towards our destination. _Yeah, I'll bet you are. This whole little game was yours was designed to guilt us into staying._ Not that I'm complaining of course, this whole situation sits very badly with me. It would be very difficult for me to just ignore it and return home like there's nothing wrong.

Minutes later, the boatman nods ahead. "We're approaching the shore." And ahead of us are tunnels underneath bricked over streets. Befitting the name of the Land of Waves, at a glance, everything seems to be quite oriented towards the use of boats. The boatman keeps his voice low. "Tazuna, we've been very fortunate, no one has noticed us so far."

"Nice going." Tazuna looks on ahead as we pass into the tunnel.

As the darkness of the tunnel, and lack of visibility due to the fog ebb away, the Land of Waves is revealed before us. There is sparkling blue water, and trees sticking up out of the water all around the harbor. The houses, on the other hand, look rather run down and decrepit. They're nothing like what we have back home. We haven't even landed yet, and I can already see the signs of the poverty that Tazuna described.

On the bright side, nothing collapses when we disembark, and the boatman, looking rather stern, nods to us. "That's as far as I go. God luck." Obviously, he doesn't want to be seen with us, since it sounds like it could get him into some serious trouble.

Tazuna dips his head in acknowledgment. "Right, thank you for taking such a risk."

"Just be careful." The boatman leaves us with that warning, before revving the motor of his boat and speeding off into the harbor.

With that, Tazuna turns to us. "Okay, take me to my home. And I mean get me there in one piece."

"Right." Kakashi understands the implications, shooting all of us the same look.

* * *

But as we make our way through the town and into the forest, Kakashi's face starts to become rather grim. _He must be thinking about that ninja attack earlier… If Gato is as determined as Tazuna made him out to be, then I doubt that the attack earlier is going to be the last we hear from him. If he's gotten word about the two ninja he sent, then he's probably going to come at us with something harder next time. And there's definitely going to be a next time._

And not only is Kakashi on edge, but Naruto and Sasuke are having something of a silent glaring contest. Rather, Naruto is glaring at Sasuke, probably over what happened earlier.

All of a sudden, Naruto runs on ahead, looking around for something. That's when a chill goes down my spine. _There's someone else here._

My eyes flick around, just in time to see Naruto pull out a kunai. "Over there!" He chucks the kunai knife into the bushes, and I hear the telltale thud of the knife hitting a tree. But as Naruto gets back to his feet, he looks rather smug. "It was just a mouse."

Sakura is not impressed. "Mouse!? Yeah right, everyone can see through your stupid act. You're so obvious, it's embarrassing!"

"Naruto…those are kunai knives, they're dangerous." Kakashi has his hands out like he's expecting Naruto to throw another one.

But despite Naruto's attitude, I'm not entirely sure that whatever he aimed that kunai at was actually a mouse. He may be an idiot, but he's got pretty good instincts. He just doesn't know what those instincts mean, or what to do with them half the time.

Tazuna, on the other hand, blows right up. "Stop trying to scare me, you scrawny little dwarf!"

Keeping up the act, Naruto peers into some more bushes. "Hey, is someone hiding over there? No, they're over there!" He looks off in a completely different direction now. A chill goes down my spine, stronger than the last time. And Naruto, whether by chance or by instinct, turns in that direction. "Over there!" He chucks another kunai knife into the bushes, and there's another, louder thud this time.

"That's it, Naruto!" Sakura walks over and bonks him right on the head.

Naruto holds his head in his hands. "W-why'd you do that? Somebody is following us, I mean it!"

"Yeah right!" SAura is almost livid. "Quit lying and acting like a dumb kid!"

Sasuke approaches me, lowering his voice. "Earlier, Kakashi said something about you getting twitchy when we were being followed…"

"Yeah…" My eyes dart through the bushes, but the presence that I sensed earlier is now gone. "It might just have been my imagination, though. There's no guarantee that we're being followed right now."

"Hm…" That seems to allay his suspicions, for now. But his eyes trail off to where Kakashi is rummaging in the bushes.

Curious, I follow him into the brush, and peer around him at the tree that Naruto's kunai struck. And right there, underneath the knife, is a pure white rabbit. Just another wild animal, it would seem.

 _Wait…white?_

The others walk over to take a look at what's got us so interested, and Sakura becomes shrill again. "Naruto! Look what you did!"

"Ah!" Naruto panics. "A rabbit!" He sprints forward, straight for the poor, traumatized bunny. "Oh, I'm sorry, little rabbit, I'm sorry."

Something is very wrong here, so I move closer to Kakashi, my voice as quiet as I can make it. "Isn't it the wrong season for white rabbits? Not to mention the wrong region?"

His eye narrows briefly. "You're right, but keep it quiet, we don't need to alert the enemy."

"Of course." But I keep my eyes peeled anyway, since now I'm certain that we were being followed. In fact, we might still be under surveillance. But my range in small and not very precise, so they might literally be under our noses, and I wouldn't be able to tell.

Suddenly, the sensation reappears, a chill goes down my spine, and I get a sense of where the enemy is as I look up into the trees. I draw a kunai with my left hand and four shuriken with my right. "Up there!"

Kakashi's eyes travel up to the tree as a spinning piece of metal comes hurtling out of it. "Look out!" I duck and feel the wind as the huge sword flies right over our heads, nearly decapitating all six of us. As soon as it passes, I'm back on my feet and searching for the new position of our enemy. Now that this assailant has revealed themselves, at least to an extent, my natural sense should be able to track them.

Though tracking proves unnecessary, as the cocky son of a bitch appears a moment after the huge piece of metal, a large cleaver-like sword, buries itself deeply into a tree.

The man has short, dark hair, sun-darkened, yet still rather pasty skin that looks almost gray, with bandages around his mouth, white and camo-styled clothing, along with one very distinguishing feature. A headband from the Hidden Mist tied crookedly around his head.

Kakashi takes a moment to analyze the enemy before stepping forward. "Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist…"

Naruto, the fool springs forward, totally prepared to take this guy on, despite the fact that he's clearly a very dangerous opponent. Kakashi holds his hand out, topping Naruto. "You're in the way. Get back."

"But why!?" Naruto doesn't seem to get that this guy in front of us is bad new, very bad news. And I'm not sure where, but I recognize the name Zabuza from somewhere.

"He's not like those other ninja." Kakashi's voice goes low, and I can tell that he's feeling the pressure here. "He's in a whole other league. If he's our opponent…I'll need this." Kakashi reaches for his headband, which is currently covering his left eye. I thought that it was a strange stylistic choice when I first saw it, but seeing as he's a ninja, there's always the chance that it's just hiding something he doesn't want other people to see. And it looks like that's exactly it, and we're about to find out what's behind that headband of his. "This could be treacherous."

"Kakshi of the Sharingan Eye. Did I get that right?" Zabuza eyes Kakashi, seemingly amused.

The reactions that provokes from us are a little different. While Sakura and Naruto look rather clueless, Sasuke watches Kakashi suspiciously and warily. And having seen a Sharingan before, myself, I'm half expecting him to just bust one out right here.

On the other hand, the fact that Zabuza knows who Kakashi is, means that this odd sensei is known to the other nations. During a time of war, he would probably be in their bingo book. Most jounin would be.

"It's too bad, huh?' Zabuza turns towards us, his eyes dark and full of evil. "But you'll have to hand over the old man.

Kakashi is undeterred by the not so pleasant request. "Now, quick, mangi formation. Protect the bridge-builder and stay out of this fight! I taught you teamwork, now it's time you use it." So with the other three covering Tazuna, Kakashi barks an order to me. "Ciara, take cover, now! If something goes wrong, make sure that you're safe and sound!" Kakashi unveils his eye, which has a clean scar running straight down through it. And when the eye opens, I recognize the design. The scarlet iris, paired with the three small black dots, there's no mistaking it. It's the same kind of eye that my uncle had, though only one, instead of two. A Sharingan, the signature of the now nearly extinct Uchiha Clan. "I'm ready!"

"Well, looks like I get to see the Sharingan in action. This is an honor." Zabuza sounds mildly pleased by this development. He must be some kind of adrenaline junkie, to actually be happy about getting to fight a power like that.

Naruto, the dolt, is confused. "Everyone keeps saying Sharingan, Sharingan. Will someone tell me what Sharingan is?"

"The Sharingan…a rare power." Sasuke's teeth clench together for a moment. "It resides in the eyes. The user of this visual jutsu, or doujutsu, can instantly see and comprehend any genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu, and reflect the attack back on the attacker. The Sharingan is a special, rare form of doujutsu, however, there's more to the Sharingan than that, a lot more."

"You got it right, boy." Zabuza chuckles darkly at us. "But you only scratched the surface. The Sharingan can analyze an opponent's technique, and then copy it to the smallest detail." Mist starts to gather around us, creating a distinct feeling of unease. "As for you, jounin, the assassination unit of the Hidden Mist…we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. Your profile was in our bingo book. They called you the man who copied over a thousand jutsu. Kakashi, the Copy Ninja."

Instead of being intimidated by the scary-looking ninja in front of us, Naruto is star-struck by his sensei. "Wow, that's so cool!"

Sasuke, on the other hand, is looking at Kakashi like he's an impossibility. And I think I know why. I'm well aware that there were Uchiha who married into my clan, before the slaughter. And they were the only ones who ever had this kind of eye. Assuming that it's anything like the powers my Dad told me about, it would make sense that Sasuke would be shocked, seeing this power in a person who, as far as we know, isn't an Uchiha.

Zabuza crouches down, ready for a serious fight. "Enough talking. I need to exterminate the old man, now."

At his words, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura get themselves into a defensive position around Tazuna. The three of them, who seemed to be almost completely incompatible in the academy, are now working together like a seamless team.

But with the mystery solved and the others in their formation, I note Kakashi's order. The fact is, that while I'm assigned to this mission, I have to obey him, just like his own students. I'm not big on the whole obedience thing, though neither are my two teammates from what I could tell. That's probably why Yuki-Sensei gave us so much freedom. Because there's not much she could have done about it otherwise.

I leap back about ten yards and take a defensive stance well behind the group. But Kakashi seems to know that behind them all is where my talents are best used. I can fight long range with a couple of very dangerous wind style jutsu, my particular specialty. Maybe Gramps told him about that, or maybe it's because of my medical skills and wanting to keep the medic at the back of the fight. Either way, this is the best place for me right now.


	8. The Demon and the Copy Ninja

**Oh, it feels so good to finally release some chapters for this fanfic after so long, despite the sleep deprivation and horrendous writer's block I've had lately. Those are the two biggest killers for my stories. Well, that, and trying to build up the inspiration and figure out how to word an essay that's due for a contest today. Fun... But, despite my lack of sleep, I am feeling quite hyper, so who knows, I might be able to pull this off, and then sleep most of the weekend.**

 **I suppose that I should add right now that this is going to weave in and out of the canon arcs at my pleasure. And, that the Chunin Exam arc is going to be one of the longest sections. So, expect a story that runs for several hundred thousand words. And then, there's also Shippuden to take care of, which is going to be twice as long. What fun.**

 **Anyway, I've already got a lot of the chapters mapped out, mostly, and I organized a lot of them just last week, so it should be a lot easier to go through them and rewrite my notes into actual story chapters.**

 **Now, enjoy.**

* * *

Zabuza stares down at Kakashi. "So, I'll have to eliminate you first, eh, Kakashi? So be it." He yanks his sword out of the tree, without even bringing the whole tree crashing down, and disappears into the mist, before reappearing on the water.

Naruto turns quickly. "He's over there!"

"He's standing on the water!" Sakura yells like she's an academy student again.

But it's true, Zabuza is indeed standing on the water. _Huh…I never thought of trying that…_ Hanging from the classroom ceiling is as far as I ever took that trick. I'd never contemplated trying to walk on water like this guy is doing. And judging by the amount of chakra he's building up, the standing on the water trick is just that, a trick. A hard and complicated trick, but nothing particularly dangerous.

His voice booms softly out of the mist. "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." And at his command, the mist thickens, and becomes rather heavy. I would even call it stifling. And it's so thick that even my sharp eyes are having trouble seeing anything past Kakashi's blurry form.

Naruto looks confused. "He vanished."

"Sensei…" Sakura's voice trembles a little. It's obvious that she's scared.

Kakashi, on the other hand, is more focused on his opponent. "He'll come after me first."

Sakura continues to shake a little. "But…who is he?"

"Zabuza Momochi, the ex-leader of the Hidden Mist Assassination Unit. He's a master of the silent killing technique." It sounds to me like Kakashi isn't the only on in a bingo book.

Naruto starts to shake as well. "S-silent?"

Kakashi keeps his eyes wide open, anticipating an attack. All while giving a lecture. "As the name suggests, it happens in an instant, without sound or warning of any kind. It's so fast, that you pass from this life without realizing what's happened. The Sharingan cannot fully neutralize it, so don't lower your guard." Then he sighs. "Well, if we fail, we only lose our lives."

Sakura panics. "How can you say that?" Those are the words of someone who has never seen death before, who has never been so close to it, that they could hear the vultures coming, while drowning in the smell of their own blood. Her words make me wish that I could still be innocent of all the horrors in the world. And while I have only seen a few of them, they are no less profound because of it.

But more to the point, Naruto notices the same thing that I do. "The mist is getting thicker."

"The Land of Waves is surrounded by ocean. These sorts of mists are ever present." Tazuna is right, with as much water as there is in this region, mist is not something that Zabuza is short on. In fact, the natural mist here probably makes it easier for him to conserve his chakra while performing this technique.

Visibility hits almost zero, and I hear Sakura's voice loudly in the mist. "Sensei!"

My eyes flit around as I try vainly to survey the scene. _I can't see a damn thing!_ I know that there's a huge imbalance this way, but I do rely on my sight for the most part, falling back on my other senses in order to confirm whatever my eyes see. But like this, I've essentially had most of my sensory ability cut off.

 _Look._ A soft, whispering voice echoes in my head, both gentle and commanding at the same time.

My eyes widen as the mist wavers, shimmering like a curtain.

 _Look and see._ The voice insists again, more urgently this time.

 _But ho-_ My thought is cut short as a warmth builds inside me, focusing into two points just behind my eyes. It's chakra, I think, but it doesn't feel like my own. Despite the foreign feeling, it doesn't feel dangerous, at least, not to me. But it still feels powerful.

The mist continues to shimmer, and as it does so, colors start standing out to me. The warmth in my eyes is coupled with the returning ability to see through the thickening mist. Outlines are still blurred, but at least now I can pick out everyone but Zabuza in the mist. I can even see Kakashi doing something weird up in front, moving around rather suspiciously. A shadow even breaks off, heading for the water.

But rather than focusing on Kakashi's antics, I'm focused on Zabuza. And seeing is not the only way to find him, because this assassin is chatty. "Eight Points. Larynx. Spine. Lungs. Liver. Jugular. Subclavian Artery. Kidneys. Heart." He's listing off the most vulnerable points on the human body, the ones that can, if attacked correctly, cause a fast death. Barring the head, of course. "Now, which will be my attack point?" It sounds to me like Zabuza is hanging out near the water. It makes sense, if he comes from the Land of Water, then the chances are good that he can use water style.

But upon hearing his voice, I get into an attack position. Everything about Zabuza sends chills up and down my spine. I should probably be afraid of him, any sane ninja would be. But there's nothing. The idea that death might finally catch up with me doesn't scare me. And I know that it's a dangerous thought to have.

Kakashi starts emitting chakra, letting it swirl out in all directions. At first, it seems pointless, until the expanding range of his chakra starts pushing away and dissipating the mist. Then he blows it away with a sharp chakra surge. He's restored the visibility, and removed the need for the warmth behind my eyes.

As the last of the mist is blown away, it becomes clear that Sasuke is shaking. He's not alone, Naruto and Sakura look freaked out as well, but he's got it worse than them. And the way he's clutching his kunai is making me nervous.

"Sasuke! Calm down." Kakashi stands proud and tall, wary and cautious. "I'll protect you with my life, all of you. I will not allow my comrades to die. Trust me." He turns to look at his team, appearing far too calm and collected, considering the situation.

A soft breeze touches my shoulder, as though there's someone breathing down my neck. Panicked, I spin around, only to find no one there. Then, there's a voice far behind me. "I wouldn't be so sure."

I spin around again, this time, finding Zabuza crouched between the three of them and Tazuna. _No!_ There is certainly a time and place for following orders, but it would seem that now is not that time. Springing forward, chakra flowing from my fingers in a deadly fashion, I prepare a chakra scalpel. _To hell with Kakashi's orders, I can't just sit still and let Zabuza hurt them!_

But it's not like Zabuza is going to just wait there for me to run interference. "It's over." He starts to make his move too fast, intending to cut all four of them down in an instant.

I can't get there in time. Kakashi, on the other hand, can. He turns on a dime and disappears into thin air, reappearing right next to Zabuza, locking the assassin and his sword in place as Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna all bolt in different directions.

I slow to a stop, right behind Tazuna, only to see water pouring out of Zabuza where Kakashi stabbed him. _What the…a clone made of water?_

Naruto jumps to his feet, pointing into the mist. "Sensei! Behind you!"

The fake Zabuza turns into a puddle of water as Kakashi turns to face the real one. But Zabuza seems more than proficient with that sword of his, slashing it through the air and slicing Kakashi clean in two. A perfect bisection.

Or not.

Kakashi's slain form bursts like a water balloon, spilling a body of water onto the ground. My heart, pounding like a drum only a moment ago, calms quickly, my panic turning into confusion. Another clone made of water? _But when…_ Then it hits me. _That must have been that shadow I saw. This is what Kakashi was up to before he dispersed the mist!_

Reappearing behind Zabuza, Kakashi puts a kunai to his throat. "Don't move." He's definitely played this out well, in this position, he could very well kill Zabuza in an instant. "Now it's over. You're finished." But it still feels like there's something wrong. Because now, Zabuza is just quietly standing there, like he doesn't have a care in the world.

But Naruto has absolute faith in Kakashi's words. "Alright!" Sakura appears to share his faith, while Sasuke still looks a little suspicious of the circumstances. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who feels like caution should still be observed.

My gut starts twisting when I hear Zabuza chuckle. "Finished? You really don't get it, do you? Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copycat ninja like you." Kakashi doesn't take the insult well, and Zabuza just finds it perfectly entertaining. "You are full of surprises, though. You'd already copied my Water Clone Jutsu when you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed. You made your clone say those words to draw my attention, while you hid in the mist, waiting for me to make my move. Nice try." A shadow appears behind Kakashi, another Zabuza. "But I'm not that easy to fool."

Kakashi drags the kunai back into the first Zabuza's throat, revealing another water clone that splashes down onto the ground. My eyes, once fixed on the new Zabuza, now dart around, searching out surroundings. _Is that one the real one, or another clone? Does he have any more clones hidden away?_

Naruto's eyes widen. "Hey! That was a clone too!"

As Kakashi turns to face Zabuza, the swordsman swings his sword around, narrowly missing the chance to decapitate Kakashi, as the silver-haired jounin dodges the swinging blade. That failing, Zabuza sticks his sword into the ground, using it as leverage to aim a kick at Kakashi's head

Kakashi goes flying, and Zabuza yanks his sword out of the ground, racing towards the river with it. Kakashi drops some pikes, trying to slow Zabuza down. And it works, sort of. Though Zabuza finds amusement in this as well. "Makabishi spikes? Trying to slow me down? Foolish." He scoffs and jumps over the spikes, landing in the river.

"Sensei!" Naruto, despite his obvious fear, calls out for Kakashi.

Sasuke grimaces, his eyes fixed on Zabuza. "He has great physical skill too."

"Keep your guards up. No matter how strong an enemy is, there's always a weak point." My eyes flick to each of them, locking eyes only for an instant. "We just have to stay alive long enough to figure out what his is."

A disturbance in the river catches my attention, and a familiar head of silver hair pokes out of the water. I breathe a sigh of relief. _Good, it looks like our jounin is still in good shape. Now…where is Zabuza…?_

My question is quickly answered, as the assassin appears on the water behind Kakashi. "Fool." He makes a fast series of hand signs, and by the formation, it looks like a water justu. "Water Prison Justu!"

 _That can't be good._

Water splashes up from the river, swirling around Kakashi's sopping wet form. An instant later, I'm once again regretting following his orders. He's gone and gotten himself trapped by Zabuza. And considering that he's supposed to be the strongest one here…that's definitely not good.

Zabuza starts laughing again, and my ears strain to pick up his words at this distance. "This prison is made of water, but it's stronger than steel. It's hard to fight when you can't move. So much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later, but first, you're little friends will have to be eliminated." Zabuza raises a hand, making a hand sign without the use of the hand holding in Kakashi. "Water Clone Jutsu."

The water shifts and looks like it starts to boil. And from the shifting water, emerges a transparent form, quickly gaining shape. I curse silently, reaching into my holster and pouch for weapons. _Great…so he's going to be sending that thing after us, huh? As if we didn't have enough problems already._

There's more laughter as the transparent shape takes more solid form. "You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you've hovered between life and death so many times, it doesn't faze you, then you may be called ninja. When you've become so deadly your profile is written in my bingo book, then you may have earned the title of ninja. But to call upstarts like you, ninja, is a joke." The mist thickens again, putting a slight strain on my eyes as the chakra focused behind them increases. But thanks to that, I can still make out Zabuza in the mist.

Zabuza disappears into the mist again, which means that he must be using some kind of combination attack. The mist, combined with some kind of teleportation technique. I think that the jounin have something like that called the body flicker. But that's definitely not a ninjutsu taught to academy students.

Reappearing in a flash, Zabuza kicks Naruto in the stomach, hurling him backwards. Straight towards me. I jump forward several meters, landing right behind Naruto. I crouch to the ground, my hands sitting protectively on his shoulders. "Naruto, are you alright?"

Naruto groans. "I think…so…" He sounds a little winded and groggy. Though that's not much of a surprise, considering how hard he just got kicked.

Zabuza, stepping on Naruto's headband, glares at us menacingly. "You're just brats."

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice is frantic, probably because she can't see the two of us through the mist.

I pat Naruto on the shoulders, making sure that my drawn weapons don't dig into his flesh. "Don't worry, he's fine!" Though for how long, I don't know. After all, we've got a very dangerous Mist ninja on our hands here, who is just itching to rip out throats out.

"Listen!" Kakashi projects his voice out of the water prison, his words directed at us. "Get the bridge-builder and run! You can't win this fight! He's using all his power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his water clone! But the clone can't go far from his real body! If you get away from him, then he can't follow! Now run!"

 _Run?_ _Yeah right. Not without rescuing you first, dolt._

I remove my hands from Naruto's shoulders, raising my weapons again. They consist of three shuriken and two kunai, with my thumbs free so that I can maneuver them at the last second.

 _We will not fail this mission._

* * *

 **I'm putting an extra little note down here, since I just feel like it.**

 **Now, while no one has reviewed this story yet, for better or worse, I'm still going to talk to you guys as though you're paying attention (though to be honest, it took coming out with almost a dozen chapters on one of my stories before it got a review, so I'm not too worried). But here, I'll be giving a brief outline of how Ciara's relationships with the members of Squad 7 are going to develop.**

 **Naruto - Now, this one should be pretty easy to figure out, considering past chapters. These two adore each other, love each other to little pieces. In a completely platonic, sibling-like/bff fashion. While Ciara doesn't participate in any of Naruto's pranks, they're still a couple of friends who are going to be very hard to separate in a crisis. They've got each other's back, even if no one else does.**

 **Sakura - This relationship is going to be based on an ever growing hill of respect and admiration on Sakura's part. Ciara is going to prove herself to be no pushover, and definitely not someone to mess with just for the hell of it. This is going to brew the admiration in Sakura, as she witnesses the medic's true skills firsthand (and also give a little more emphasis on why she ends up wanting to train as a medical ninja).**

 **Sasuke - Here comes the complicated one. Sasuke rarely sees anyone as equal to him, if ever. However, he will grudgingly come to have far more respect for Ciara than he does for Sakura or Naruto, who he sees as dead weight for the most part. His interest in her is as a ninja, and as a potential opponent for testing his skills against in the future. This dynamic is definitely going to have its ups and downs. Rather like a darker and more detached version of what Naruto and Sasuke have later on.**

 **Kakashi - Okay, this bugger knows a few of the details about her origins (which are actually going to e quite convoluted), though not all. He's just not saying anything, because he's one of the few who knows, and he's been ordered by the Hokage to keep it under wraps. He'll be looking out for her, for sure, but he will also be quite interested in seeing what skills she possesses, as well as how much she's developed.**


	9. Squad Seven vs Zabuza

**So, I've decided to make this story my project for Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal is to get it up to 200k words by the end of the month. I don't know if I'll succeed or not, but damn it, I'm going to try. And in the interest of that, I'm providing a longer chapter this time, much longer. And they'll only be getting more detailed from here on out.**

* * *

Despite the dangerously precarious situation that we've found ourselves in, the first to react is Sasuke. "We've got to do it!" He charges forward, his eyes fixed on Zabuza, only momentarily flicking to Kakashi.

While the hot-head charges ahead with shuriken in hand, I get over to Tazuna and Sakura, putting myself between them and Tazuna. "You two, stay still, and let me handle any incoming attacks! Sakura, watch my back and keep an eye on my blind spots."

She moves in closer to me, angled a little away so that she can keep an eye out for incoming attacks. Sasuke, on the other hand, goes running in like a maniac, tossing several shuriken at Zabuza, before leaping high into the air to try and land a strike from above.

However, that approach hardly stops Zabuza from grabbing Sasuke by the throat and hurling him right back towards us.

Sakura's eyes widen in fear. "Sasuke, no!"

This is bad… Keeping Zabuza in my line of sight the entire time, I leap forwards, bracing myself as Sasuke comes crashing back to the ground. "Nngh." I groan a little as his weight, superior to my own, settles into my arms. "Well, that hurt a bit."

He looks up at me, eyes wide. "You…"

"Yeah." I glare at Zabuza. "Better to prevent an injury now, than to have to spend time healing it later, when the battle gets more intense."

"Oh, so the little healer has a brain in her head." He leers at me, which I return with a glare. "And quite an attitude as well. Do you really think that your meager skills will help you now?"

I tug Sasuke to his feet and backtrack towards Tazuna and Sakura. "Is that something that you really want to find out?"

Zabuza holds my gaze as we have a silent glaring match. And I am determined not to lose, not to this bloodthirsty assassin on an adrenaline bender. He takes a few steps forward, his eyes leaving mine to glare down at Naruto, who trembles violently on the ground.

Panicking, Naruto tries to make a break for it, only to slam his hand down on the ground. I'd healed it earlier, so it shouldn't be causing him any pain. So maybe he just slammed it down too hard and lightly injured it again. However, even that doesn't deter him, and he stops shaking as he rises to his feet.

Seeing him back up and ready to go, I smile. _That's right, Naruto. We can do this. As long as we keep an eye on each other and fight our hardest, there's nothing we can't do._ My eyes drift back to Zabuza. _Even if it means taking out an impossibly powerful opponent._

Yelling, Naruto races forwards, with no regard for his own safety, stumbling a little along the way. I have to admit that Naruto's determination outweighs even my own. And that is not an easy feat to accomplish.

"Naruto, no!" Kakashi panics over in his water prison, obviously underestimating Naruto's abilities, as well as his determination. Because from his trajectory, it doesn't look like he's going for Zabuza.

Sakura grips her hair. "Naruto! What in the world are you doing!?

Screaming, he plows into Zabuza, grabbing his headband from under the assassin's foot just in time to be hurled back towards us.

 _Here we go again…_ It's too late to stop him from hitting the ground, but instead of letting him skid past us, I let him roll right into me, rolling the both of us over, but still stopping his momentum. It's something I've gotten used to over the years. Sometimes, when he's running away from someone, either people trying to catch him for pulling a prank, or nasty villagers chasing him away from their stores, he'll crash right into me, and we'll go tumbling through the dirt.

I call it pseudo-sibling bonding time, since neither of us have ever had any siblings of our own. He sets off a prank, and I get dragged into his mess by association. And if I don't get dragged into getting caught because he escapes, then I get rolled across the ground when he runs into me and knocks me over, then dragged across the village as he makes his escape.

Groaning a little, I push him off me. "Okay…that hurt. But not as bad as the time that we tumbled down that hill after you painted big green boogers on the Hokage faces…"

Naruto groans a little, himself, shifting in my lap. "Ow…"

Sakura's wide eyes focus on the boy in my lap. "What are you thinking, charging in there by yourself!? Even Sasuke couldn't get to him! We're only genin, we can't defeat a jounin. What did you think you'd accomplish by that!?"

My eyes fall to the headband clasped in his bandaged hand, and I get back on my feet, pulling him up onto unsteady feet. "Come on, you big lump. Get up." It's funny, I'm not sure if he's heavier than Sasuke or not. Even more surprising, is the fact that even though they're both taller than me, I can still drag them to their feet if I have to.

There's a little blood dripping from Naruto's mouth, which worries me a little. Though it doesn't convince him to keep his mouth shut. "Hey you, the freak with no eyebrows. Put this in your bingo book. The ninja that will become Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." He takes a deeps breath and goes to tie his headband back in place. "He never backs down. His name's Naruto Uzumaki."

His declaration beings a smile to my face. _Leave it to Naruto to proclaim his dreams to the enemy. He wants everyone to know what he plans to do with his life. He wants attention wherever he can get it, and I guess that includes a dangerous, bloodthirsty opponent._ But in the end, I'm definitely proud of my friend.

Naruto backs up, heading towards us. "Alright, Sasuke, listen up. Can you hear me?

"Yeah, I hear you." Though he distinctly sounds like he wishes he didn't.

"I've got a plan." Naruto's grin widens as he glances back at Sasuke.

Sasuke scoffs. "So you're finally thinking about teamwork, huh?"

Naruto chuckles. "Alright, now…guys, let's go wild! Let's bring this guy down." Whatever his plan is, it looks like he's trusting the rest of us to just pick it up as it progresses. And I can see the rationale of that, since it prevents the strategy from being learned by the enemy before its execution.

Zabuza, undaunted, just chuckles at us. "Big words for such a little man. You think a plan's going to keep you in the game?"

"What are you doing? I told you to run!" Kakashi's voice holds all the fear and panic that I could reasonably expect from a trained jounin. "This fight was over the moment I got caught! Now take off! Your mission is not to prove how brave you are, it's to save the bridge-builder! Stay on mission!"

Naruto sighs, then turns to the old man behind us. "Bridge-builder?"

The old man lowers his head a little. "Well, I guess…this all happened because of me, because of my desire to live. But I won't let that stand in your way now." He raises his head commandingly. "Forget about me and do what you have to do. Go ahead and fight to save your sensei!"

Sasuke smirks. "Alright, you hear that?"

"Yeah, believe it. You ready?" Naruto grins. Then, he turns to me. "Hey, Ciara, I need to ask you a favor…"

But I already know what he's going to ask. "Yeah, I'll hang out back here. For now, anyway. But if it looks like you really can't handle it on your own, I'll step in. Just leave the bridge-builder to me. I won't let anything get past me."

Sasuke eyes me warily, and Sakura stares at me in amazement. Naruto, on the other hand, just grins. "Alright!" But that one word conveys more than just an agreement. It conveys his faith in me, his belief that I will be able to protect the client, no matter what, and his confidence in my abilities. It's a feeling that the two of us try to give each other as often as we can, without it being false. And it's a feeling that we definitely both enjoy.

For some odd reason, though, Zabuza really likes to laugh. Though I suppose that it's better than him trying to murder us outright. He's chatty, so we can use that to buy time to make a plan. "You haven't learned anything, have you? Still playing your little game, pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."

That gets Kakashi in a stir. "Zabuza, the demon."

"Oh, so I was in your book too, huh?" Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. There's no way that a powerful guy like this wouldn't be in a bingo book. Kakashi turns to us, ready to explain. And for some reason, Zabuza is totally fine with waiting. It must boost his ego. "Long ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, also known as Blood Mist Village, before a student could become a ninja, there was one final test."

That catches Zabuza's interest. "You know about the graduation exam?"

"What graduation exam? What's the big deal, anyway? We had graduation tests too." Naruto must be thinking something along the lines of the kind of exam we had, where we just had to show off how well we could perform jutsu, but I'm not so sure. Judging by the tone Kakashi used, and the fact that Zabuza is laughing again, I'm guessing that this exam was nothing good.

Calming from his laughter, Zabuza glares at us. "Did you have to annihilate the other students to pass? Imagine, young ninja like you eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam, only the rules changed. You couldn't stop until you destroyed your opponent! He was your friend, shared your dreams, now it's him or you."

Sakura's earlier trembling extends to her knees, and it's almost a wonder that she's got enough strength to keep standing. "That's so cruel."

Kakashi frowns. "Ten years ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, the graduation exam changed…" His tone becomes progressively darker with the continuation of the story. "One year before, a dark evil had filled with school with terror."

"What's he saying? What evil? What kind of change? What caused the terror?" Sakura's trembling diminishes as she looks forward to an answer to her questions. Naruto, on the other hand, is still shaking a bit, and Sasuke's eyes are darting everywhere.

Kakashi's eyes grow colder. "Without pause or hesitation, a young boy, who was not even a ninja, approached the class and took down over a hundred of their students.

Zabuza's expression changes, morphing into one of demented ecstasy. "It felt so…good."

That little admission is finally enough to send shivers up and down my spine. Generally speaking, I'm fine with the sight of blood. I've seen more than my fair share of it, especially since I hang around Naruto. He gets himself into so much trouble, that seeing him with cuts and bruises is no big deal. But this…what Zabuza is so happy about…is nothing more than pointless slaughter. And that bring up more memories than I want to deal with.

Then, it happens in an instant, meaning that story time is over. Zabuza rushes towards us, first going after Naruto and Sasuke, as they're the first line of defense. He strikes Sasuke with his elbow, tossing him into the air, before slamming him to the ground, driving a hard elbow into Sasuke's stomach.

Sakura's eyes widen in alarm. "Sasuke!"

Zabuza starts grinding his foot into Sasuke's stomach, coaxing a stream of blood from his mouth. "You're nothing."

I lower my voice so that only Naruto can hear me. "I'll buy you a few seconds, then get back here. Get whatever plan you have up your sleeve ready."

"Yeah." And just like that, he starts building up a pretty impressive amount of chakra.

I, on the other hand, charge towards Zabuza, my hands flashing in front of my chest. First, the tiger, then the dog, the snake, the bird, and finally, my hands come together in the sign of the dragon. "Wind Style: Waning Crescent Dance!"

Zabuza raises a non-existent eyebrow. "And what exactly was that supposed to do?"

I should have figured that the assassin would underestimate me. But he'll soon learn that not all kids are weak and helpless. I may be the smallest here, but there's no way that I'm going to just sit by and watch while the others take care of everything, even if I am a medic, and therefore should stay back during a fight.

The first strike, he barely sees coming in time to dodge. I slash an open hand across my field of vision, releasing a razor sharp blade of wind from the fingertips of my right hand. The blade of wind sails right over his shoulder, just barely nicking the bandages around his face.

His eyes narrow at me. "So, the tiny brat has some bite. Not for long." He slashes his sword around, aiming to take my head off. But of course, that means that he's swinging lower towards the ground.

As the sword comes close to me, it takes only a fraction of a second for me to jump up, landing on the end of his sword. "Nice try." I kick back off the sword, this time, letting a blade of wind come out of the bottom of the black sandal on my left foot. This time, the blade grazes close enough to him that part of it glances off the hilt of his sword, while another small portion flashes past his face, cutting a couple of inches off the ends of the long straps of his headband.

As I slide across the ground and gain some distance, I watch Zabuza carefully, while also keeping a mental check on my time limit. This jutsu only lasts for about half a minute, tops. Though in a one on one fight, half a minute is all the time in the world.

Slashing my hand across my field of vision once again, I begin spinning, jumping, and dodging around Zabuza. Most of the blades of wind smash against his sword. And despite how huge and heavy that thing looks, he swings it around with one hand like it's no heavier than a feather. Though the way that it slams into the ground each time he tries to hit me would suggest that it's a lot heavier than he makes it look.

As my time finally runs out, Naruto's voice rings out behind me. "Ciara! I'm ready! Switch with me!" I know full well what he means by switching. He means that it's time for me to head back to defense, while he takes over the offense. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

As his chakra flares, dozens of clones appear around us. And from the looks of it, they're not illusions, these ones are real. Well, as real as any jutsu can make clones. And from the looks of it, both of the jounin present are mildly impressed by what Naruto has managed to come up with.

The clones take out kunai, lining up and preparing to attack. "Here we go!" They leap into the air as I jump backwards several meters.

Landing next to Sasuke, I take a good look at the blood coming out of his mouth, while ignoring the way that Zabuza is taking out one clone after another. "Sasuke, sit still and give me a minute to treat you. You've got some external and internal damage that needs healing."

He grunts slightly, and I take that as a sign of approval. So I coat my hands in a thin layer of chakra, and press them to his shoulders. The carotid artery and jugular vein run under where I've put my fingers, so if I get my chakra into his bloodstream and let it be circulated that way, I should be able to spread it inside him without wasting it. I've still got to work on pumping my chakra straight into the patient's chakra network, but that'll have to wait till later, because unlike one of my great-grandfathers, I'm not gifted with a Byakugan that can see into the chakra network.

I glance over at Naruto, and catch sight of one of the versions of him turning into a huge shuriken, before another version of him stuffs it into his pack. _A giant shuriken…? What's he planning on doing with that? He sucks at throwing shuriken._

An instant later, the many Naruto clones still remaining converge on Zabuza, covering him in a mountain of orange jumpsuits. That plan, however, fails miserably when Zabuza takes out the whole pile of them at once, hurling them out in all directions. _I sure hope that Naruto has a better plan than that…_

Looking back down at Sasuke, it's clear that his breathing has eased up, and he's no longer in pain. And that means that he can fight. "Alright, I've done what I can in the time that Naruto's kept him distracted. So I hope that you two have a plan."

Sasuke grits his teeth, and from behind me, it's clear that Tazuna is not liking this situation. "His skills are too advanced. He's too powerful, there's no way to defeat him!"

As the clones slide back, one of them reaches into his pack, taking out the huge shuriken that I saw another Naruto turn into earlier. And with Sasuke back on his feet, Naruto chucks the thing through the air. "Sasuke!"

Reaching his hand out, my patient grabs hold of the flying weapon, catching it perfectly in his left hand. His eyes widen for a moment, and he spins around, nearly making himself into a blur. And thanks to my fast eyes, I catch a glimpse of him switching the shuriken out for another one, identical to the first

With a flick of his wrist, the four blades of the huge shuriken unfold, making what looks like a pinwheel made of grain scythes combined with single-edged spearheads. There's a slight, almost inaudible chuckle from Sasuke, before his gaze grows colder. "Demon Wind Shuriken, Windmill of Shadows."

Zabuza's clone scoffs. "A shuriken? You won't touch me with that."

But, seeing as he leaps high into the air, using chakra to gain a fair bit of altitude, it would seem that Sasuke begs to disagree. He hurls that shuriken through the air, on a curving trajectory, aimed at Zabuza's real body. But what intrigues me more is the second motion that Sasuke employs. A motion that results in the addition of a second shuriken. From Zabuza's height, he won't see it until it's too late. But I'm shorter than the rest of them, so as it skims along the ground, I can just see a second shuriken in the shadow of the first.

As the two shuriken head towards their mark, Zabuza takes the bait. He catches the first of the two, assuming that only one was thrown. Then, the second of the shuriken appears from the now absent shadow of the first, and Zabuza has a split second decision to make.

I glance at Naruto, then at Sasuke, smirking at the genius of their plan. _So, I wonder if Sasuke still thinks that Naruto is just a moron. Because I'd be willing to bet against that. At least, I'd bet on his brains whenever we're in a pinch. He's the genius on the field type of person, but sit him in front of a written test, and he'll flunk it immediately._

With one hand occupied with the shuriken, and the other with the prison holding Kakashi in place, Zabuza chooses to jump over the second shuriken, letting it sail harmlessly underneath him. "I told you your shuriken can't touch me."

He really shouldn't have done that.

While Sakura and Tazuna looks worried, Sasuke sure doesn't. He and Naruto are both smirking a little, Naruto more than him. And thinking back on what I saw during the earlier skirmish, I think I know why.

About three meters behind Zabuza, the shuriken disappears in a puff of smoke, revealing Naruto, already armed with a kunai. "Eat this!" Naruto throws it straight at Zabuza, and there's only one way for the assassin to dodge that weapon.

With his hand forced, Zabuza wrenches his hand out of the water prison, dodging to the side to avoid Naruto's kunai. That doesn't sit well with Zabuza, who turns around, intent on smashing Naruto's brains in with the giant shuriken still in his hand.

The shuriken spins in his grip, but jut as he's about to let it loose on Naruto, Kakashi slips between the two, stopping the shuriken's motion with the back on his right hand. And the sensei is not looking particularly happy right now.

Sakura, on the other hand, is ecstatic. "Kakashi-Sensei!"

Naruto, after crashing into the river, pokes his head out of the water. And Kakashi turns to him, approval ringing in his voice. "Naruto, that was an excellent plan. You've really grown, haven't you?"

Naruto grins and starts laughing. "I knew I couldn't beat him with my shadow clones, that was just to distract him! While he fought the clones, I turned into the Demon Wind Shuriken! He didn't know what to do! Believe it! I used one of the clones to transform into the shuriken, and when I threw it to Sasuke, it looked like a real shuriken. Sasuke could tell it was me in a second, so he spun around so that no one could see, and pulled out his own shuriken. Now there were two shuriken. One was real, one was me. I hid in the shadow of the real shuriken, and my target was the real Zabuza. I knew that I couldn't fight Zabuza myself, that wasn't in the game plan. I just wanted to get in there and break up his water prison. I didn't know his clone would be wrecked too. Ha! That was a bonus, believe it!" Naruto looks so proud of himself, and while it was definitely a good plan, what matters is that he and Sasuke executed it perfectly, and without even talking about it.

Sasuke smirks and shakes his head. "Don't brag, you just lucked out."

"The whole thing was just a fluke!" Even Tazuna joins in on the teasing. We all know that it was a good plan, especially for Naruto to come up with, since he's usually more focused on food and brawling than actual combat tactics.

Zabuza scoffs. "I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison."

"Don't flatter yourself." Kakashi's words are both cold, as well as warm. "You were forced to let go." His pride in Naruto is shining through, despite the severity of the situation.

Then, the tension in the air increases, and we all know who that's coming from. Now that he's free, I'm guessing that Naruto's teacher is about to show us exactly why he's a jounin. "Your technique worked on me once, but it won't work again. So, what's it gonna be?"

Sasuke locks eyes with Sakura. "Sakura, you know what to do." At his words, the two of them move closer together, forming a barrier between Tazuna and the fight that's about to go down.

As for me, I stare at Kakashi, and notice the blood dripping from his hand. "Great…looks like Kakashi is bleeding. He'll need a healing session once this fight is over."

My words ring even more true when Zabuza collapses the shuriken, bringing all four sharp edges down on Kakashi's hand. _Great…now I'll have to go checking for broken bones as well._ Thankfully, he presses back and sends the shuriken flying away, relieving the pressure on his hand before I hear any bones snap.

The two of them leap away from each other, and Zabuza starts making hand signs while in the air. That catches Kakashi's eye, and his Sharingan in particular looks like it's paying attention.

Sasuke notices as well. "The Sharingan…"

All of us watch as Zabuza starts chaining together several hand signs, switching every half second to go on to the next one. And thanks to the Sharingan, Kakashi not only manages to copy the order of them perfectly, but also manages to catch up to Zabuza.

The water between the two of them rumbles, and both their voices ring out. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu."

When the two dragons rise from the water and clash, huge waves go up on all sides of the river. So I take out two kunai and twirl them around my fingers as the water approaches. Now! As Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna brace themselves, I take one step towards the water, slashing the two kunai down diagonally, wind chakra spitting from both of them. The wave in front of me splits into pieces, as much as water can be shattered, and the brunt of the wave's blow is dissipated.

As water flies around us, the wave sloshing all over the ground, I hear Sakura gasp. "How did you do that?"

I twirl the two kunai around my fingers again, a smile creeping onto my face. "Just forced some chakra into the blades. I use wind style jutsu for the most part, so I just applied that to the weapons. That's how I cut the wave up."

I turn to see Sasuke frowning at me. "Wind style, huh? What happened to being a medic? And that jutsu you used earlier…"

Obviously, these two are more interested in what the hell I just did, rather than the fact that Zabuza is going at their sensei with an intent to kill. "Hey, I never said that I couldn't fight. Though I'm not very good at close quarters combat. I'm better at hitting from a distance. Anyway…" I glue my eyes back on Kakashi. "We've got more important things to focus on than my wind style jutsu."

Sasuke nods, his eyes traveling back to Kakashi, where they stay fixed as he and Zabuza fight kunai on sword. You would think that the giant sword would have the advantage, but Kakashi is holding him off as an equal.

The two combatants break apart, giving each other some space. Then, they start running in a circle, their movements perfectly synchronized. And with one hand in front of their chests, the other in the air, even their sign movement is the same. There's something weird going on, and I'm betting that it's got everything to do with Kakashi's single Sharingan eye.

Tazuna grumbles a little, awe apparent in his vice. "He's not just following, he's moving the same way at the same time.

A new presence in the area distracts me for a moment, and my eyes shift away from the battle and into the trees. I'm not entirely sure what it is with my sense, but lately, they've been getting stronger. I can't really sense incoming chakra very well, at least, not yet, but my instincts are tingling, just like when we were on our way here from the Leaf.

We're being watched.

Sakura grabs my attention with her slightly squeaky vice. "How's he doing that? How, Sasuke?"

Sasuke stays silent. And then, Kakashi says something rather out of the blue. "Going to do next?" It's unnerving, seeing as neither of them have spoken again until this point. But Kakashi must have figured, with the way that he's perfectly copying Zabuza's every move, right down to the timing, what the assassin is thinking. And apparently, it worked, because Zabuza's got sweat on his face now. :Makes you furious, doesn't it?"

Zabuza continues making slow hand signs. "Ha, all you're doing is copying me, like a monkey." He seems very confident, until Kakashi matches him word for word. "You can't beat me with cheap tricks, I'll crush you!" Zabuza's eyes widen, shock showing prominently on his pale face. "When I'm finished with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again." His hand signs speed up, a clear sign of agitation.

The next thing I know, Zabuza has frozen in his tracks, and Kakashi has beaten him to the punch with the jutsu. "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu."

The vortex forms just in front of Kakashi, grabbing Zabuza in its currents before he can retaliate. The force of the jutsu slams him against a tree, and nearly takes all of us out with it as the shockwaves hit.

Kakashi runs from the river, stepping lightly across the water, before hurling several kunai at Zabuza, who is still disoriented from his impromptu field trip. Kakashi lands on a branch above his head, looking rather cross. "You're finished." The water begins to recede, draining back into the river, and leaving the forest only slightly the worse for wear.

Zabuza struggles to look up. "How? Can you see into the future?"

"Yes." Kakashi is totally pulling that one out of his ass. "This is your last battle, ever." Kakashi pulls out another kunai, planning on finishing Zabuza for good.

But this battle is not to end the way that Kakashi has planned, because out of nowhere, two senbon needles come flying, nearly grazing my cheek as they hurtle towards Zabuza. The two needles bury themselves deeply into the assassin's neck, and his eyes bulge for a moment, before he drops to the ground.

Behind me is that presence I sensed earlier. And I turn to see a young person in a mask. "You're right, it was his last battle." From the markings, and the fact that I've seen similar masks before, I would say that this is an ANBU, or a ninja of similar station, from the Hidden Mist Village.

While Naruto drags himself out of the water, looking less than pleased with this new development, Kakashi drops from the tree and kneels next to Zabuza's body. He sighs slightly. "No vital signs." He looks up at the other ninja with suspicion.

But instead of being hostile, the other ninja bows. "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down." Judging by the words, this ninja allegedly specializes in stealth, rather than combat. And judging by the pitch of the voice, as well as the size of this person, they seem to be rather young, though I can't tell whether they are male or female.

Kakashi scrutinizes the ninja carefully. "By your mask, it seems you're a tracker ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist." So it would seem that my guess was fairly close. It's good to know that even memories from my early childhood, of seeing strange masks being worn by the old man's ANBU units, can help me to identify people, if only a little.

The ninja nods. "Impressive, you're well informed."

Naruto rushes over, his temper starting to get the better of him, again. "A tracker!"

"Naruto, you don't even know what that is. You missed the lesson on it, as usual. Tracker ninja have a special role. Try coming to class some time. A rogue ninja carries all kinds of secrets with him, the secrets of his people. Trackers are specially trained to hunt down these ninja and eliminate them. That way, the secrets of their people remain secrets." Sakura chastises him before I get the chance. Then she turns to me. "You missed that class too, you were out sick that day."

My eyes home in on the tracker suspiciously. "That doesn't mean that I cant recognize an ANBU mask when I see one."

"Oh." That shuts her up fast. Though I'd forgotten that I played the part of a very average student while I was at the academy. So I suppose that it's my fault for giving her a false impression of me.

The tracker nods once more. "That's correct. I'm an member of the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza.

Despite all of that, Naruto runs towards the tracker, a strained look on his face. He glances back at Zabuza, then up at the tracker. "What is this!? Who do you think you are!?" He points up at the tracker, almost like he's issuing a challenge. "Did you hear me?"

"Easy Naruto." Kakashi gets to his feet. "He's not our enemy.

"That's not the point! Did you see what he did!? Just like that!" Naruto's emotions start running high. "Zabuza was huge and powerful, like some kinda monster. And this kid, who's no bigger than me, he brought down Zabuza with one move, like it was nothing! I mean, what does that make us? We're just fumbling around, we don't know anything! How can I accept that!?" He's feeling inferior, outdone, outclassed. And I can understand that, somewhat. But unlike Naruto, I've grown into a few of my powers. So I don't feel this gap to be all that large.

"Well, even if you don't accept it, still, it did happen, Naruto." Kakashi is being pretty straight with him, but his voice is still gentle, so it looks like he's not trying to make Naruto blow his top. "In this world, there are kids who are younger than you, and yet stronger than me." His eyes flick first to Naruto, then to me. And I get a sneaking suspicion that he knows that I'm stronger than I've shown today.

Dropping my gaze, I stare blankly at Zabuza's body. _The placement of those senbon is…strange. If you're going for a kill shot, then it's better to hit a major organ, or artery. That looks like it hit the pressure points in the neck, or maybe the brain stem._ The problem is, as a medical ninja, if I get to close to the body, it could be akin to declaring war. And I would rather not do that, even by accident.

The tracker disappears from the branch, reappearing next to Zabuza. The ninja lifts Zabuza's body, hefting over a shoulder. "Your struggle is over for now, I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me, farewell."

Naruto's eyes widen as the two disappear in a small twister. "Look, he disappeared." Naruto runs off towards the tree, but his efforts are fruitless.

"He's gone, Naruto." Kakashi readjusts his mask, covering up his Sharingan. "Let it go."

Naruto growls in frustration, sinking to his knees before punching the ground repeatedly. "What are we doing here!? Were nothing! I can't believe it!"

"Naruto…" Sakura watching, a pitiful expression gracing her features. _I hate pity…_

Kakashi walks forward, catching Naruto's left arm. "As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy. Save your anger for the next enemy." He releases Naruto's arm as the idiot cools down, then turns to us. "We haven't completed our mission yet. We still have to get the bridge-builder to his bridge."

The old man laughs bashfully. "Sorry I caused all this trouble for ya. But you can rest at my house when we get to the village."

"Alright, let's get a move on." Kakashi turns again, this time in the direction of the village. However, he barely has the chance to take a handful of steps, before he collapses in a heap.

Picking up my pack, I rush forward, beating even Naruto to Kakashi's barely moving form. "Damn it, what happened!?" I press my fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse, and he's definitely got one, though it feels weak, like he's exhausted. My gaze travels to his bloodied hand, but there's no way that an infection could have set in yet, and there's no discoloration or other symptoms to indicate poison.

I'm soon surrounded by Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna, all of whom look worried and confused. Sakura pipes up, her voice almost shrill now. "What happened!?"

"Kakashi-Sensei…" Naruto's eyes are wide, clearly very worried about the condition of his sensei. "Ciara, is there anything you can do?"

"Working on it!" I pass my hands over him, checking for anything and everything I can think of. "He's got…some strained muscles in his legs, a shallow cut on his hand, and it seems that he's just exhausted. His chakra levels are low, which might be the cause of it." I glance at his headband warily. "I wonder…how much chakra it takes to use a Sharingan…"

"A lot." Sasuke grits his teeth. "A whole lot."

I flick my eyes back to Kakashi's hand, and I pull it up, placing it between both of mine. "There's nothing I can do for the exhaustion, but I can at least tend to the injury." The air between my hands glows, and the blood stops flowing out of his hand as I do what I can to seal up the wound. I strip his glove off and pull some more bandages from my bag, wrapping them carefully around his hand. "This is all I can do for now. But he needs to rest and recover. He is physically exhausted, and he needs sleep and food in order to recover the chakra he's lost. After that, he'll need to keep off his feet for a couple of days."

Tazuna heaves a gruff sigh and shrugs off his pack, tossing it to Naruto. "Take care of that, kid, I'll carry your sensei. We can get the girl to treat him properly at my house."

Naruto nods, quietly for once, and I back away from Kakashi, closing my bag back up as Tazuna lifts Kakashi onto his back. When we started this mission, this is definitely not how I saw this going down. But it would seem that Gramps was onto something when he decided to send me along. I would be very worried for them otherwise.


	10. Dead and Gone?

**It's been so freaking hot that it's been impossible to sleep. So, I guess this is a good use of my time if I can't manage to fall asleep. So please, feel free to take advantage of my heat-induced insomnia. Honestly, the environment has a bigger effect on my health than anything else. This is also the one place that I manage to catch the flue every second week of September, like clockwork. I can literally time it each year, it's that regular, flu shot or not.**

 **So, let's visit with another person suffering from exhaustion, shall we? Poor idiot Kakashi...can't stay out of trouble to save his life.**

 **And points to anyone who identifies the people in her dream. Hint: the connection is in the first chapter.**

* * *

Tazuna's house is larger than I thought it would be. Then again, I suppose that's a good thing, considering that he's got five guests. And one of them is currently laid up in bed. Though he's recovering, thanks to my hourly ministrations.

But, as he's been asleep for quite a while, I've been napping in his room, waking up periodically in order to tend to him again. But even with potent medical ninjutsu, there's only so much that I can do for his exhaustion and chakra depletion.

And then, there's also the issue of what happened with that tracker ninja. It's been distracting me for a while, keeping me from getting too bored while watching over an unconscious jounin.

The way that the needles were placed, the immediate lack of vital signs, and the boy's sudden appearance. All of it only makes sense under a few specific conditions. Which means that either the boy is far luckier than he allowed us to believe, or he was already informed. And if it is the latter, then it means that he deceived us.

But I can go on thinking about all of that after I take a nap. I'm due for another one in about five minutes anyway.

* * *

 _It's a sunny Thursday afternoon, which means that two of my favorite people in the world should be paying me a visit very soon. I run through the grass, barefoot and smiling. "Shi-Shi! Chi-Chi!" I wave my pudgy little hand through the air, trying to catch the attention of my favorite uncles, well, my uncle's little brother, and their cousin. But I call them my uncles anyway. They usually visit me once a week, and since they're a lot closer to my age than my other uncles, they actually like to come and play with me. It's hard to get to them, because my short little legs will only get me so far so fast._

 _Finally, I have both pairs of eyes on me, both pair similarly dark and deep. And below them are soft smiles, shining just for me. I love their smiles. They make me feel warm and happy._

 _The taller of the two crouches down as I get closer, his arms spread wide and his dark eyes gleaming. "Come here, Cia!"_

 _I pick up the pace, as much as I can, and barrel into his arms. Though I hardly budge the older boy at all. Not that I really expected too, after all, at three years old, I weigh no more than thirty pounds, compared to his eleven years of age, and nearly eighty pound body. I'm half his height, and less than half his weight, making me barely more than a stuffed animal to him. "Shi-Shi! I missed you!"_

 _His arms wrap around me, and he straightens up, lifting me high off the ground. "Sorry, we've just been really busy lately. We just got back from…training, so we came to visit you."_

 _"Yay!" I snuggle cozily against Shi-Shi's neck._

 _My hair must tickle him, because he starts giggling a little. "Cia, that tickles! Go easy on me!"_

 _Spurred on by his laughter, and undaunted by his protests, I nuzzle against his neck a little more, rubbing my brown curls against his skin. "Shi-Shi needs to smile more!" And this is how I plan to make that happen._

 _He hefts me up a little higher, settling me on his arm and against his shoulder so that I can see him smiling at me. "I think I can do that."_

 _Satisfied with the glowing smile on his face, I turn to Chi-Chi. "You need to smile too!"_

 _His lips twitch a little, and his smile brightens a bit. "Okay." He takes two fingers and pokes my forehead. "You're such a demanding little princess."_

 _I link and raise my hand to rub my forehead. "Hey…that wasn't nice…"_

 _He chuckles and gets on his tiptoes, pressing a kiss to my forehead next. "I'm sorry. Is that better?"_

 _I giggle again, pressing a kiss to his cheek to return the favor. "Yeah…I love you Chi-Chi." I press a kiss to the other boy's cheek as well. "I love you too Shi-Shi."_

 _Shi-Shi laughs again, and the music of the two of them laughing is such a soft and sweet sound. I love it when they come to visit me. Chi-Chi always talks about how he has a little brother, and that I should be his friend when I grow up. I can't wait to meet him. I hope he's nice…_

 _I reach my arms out to Chi-Chi, a pouty look about my face. "Hold me!"_

 _He chuckles a little, reaching his own arms out so that he can bring me close enough to wrap my arms around his neck. Even at only nine years old, he can hold me just as easily as my young uncle. "Did you miss us that much?"_

 _I nod, pulling a little on his long hair. "Shi-Shi said that you would teach me jutsu! I wanna learn jutsu! I wanna be like Daddy and my uncles!"_

 _He looks over at Shi-Shi worriedly. "Jutsu? Is that really what you told her?"_

 _Shi-Shi shrugs. "She wants to learn. And it's not like she doesn't have the potential. She is the daughter of the head of the clan that's been here centuries before the Leaf. They've got powers that the rest of the village can't even understand."_

 _"Yeah…but that's not the point…" Chi-Chi looks me right in my bright green eyes. "You can't learn jutsu yet…you're too little. You need to learn how to use your chakra first. You'll do that when you go to the academy."_

 _"Academy?" I tilt my head. "What's that?"_

 _He smiles softly. "A place where you'll learn to do jutsu, and where you'll make lots of friends."_

 _"Friends?" As the sheltered and protected daughter of the clan head, I'm not allowed off the estate yet. That's why these two come to visit me. "I want friends…"_

 _Friends sound nice. Then I look up at Chi-Chi, pulling on his hair again. "Chi-Chi, I wanna be pretty like you when I get big!"_

 _He blinks, and behind me, Shi-Shi starts cracking up, laughing like a maniac. "She wants to be pretty like you! Looks like you'll be brushing her hair and helping her with her makeup soon."_

 _Chi-Chi scowls a little at Shi-Shi, before turning back to me with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll be much prettier than me when you grow up."_

 _"Yeah, but be careful around boys. They'll chase you if you're too pretty." Shi-Shi smiles, though I'm not entirely sure why. though it earns him another scowl from Chi-Chi._

 _I love these two so much._

* * *

The sound of a person approaching rouses me from my unsettling dream, calling my attention towards the door. I rub my eyes and sit up straighter against the wall. _Jeez…it's been a while since I've had a memory dream about those two…_ But the dream also hurts, because the two of them are long gone now. And I'll never see them again.

Distracting me from some rather depressing thoughts, Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, walks into the room to check on me once again. "Is there anything I can get you? Something to eat? Or maybe something to drink? You haven't had anything since you arrived."

I shake my head. "I'm fine, my chakra levels are holding steady thanks to my naps." In truth, I've been using my chakra to suppress my hunger. I'd rather not impose on these people more than I have to, especially after seeing the poor conditions that the people in this land have to live in. I can manage myself for now.

"Alright…" She doesn't look so sure abut my answer, and I can hardly blame her. From what Tazuna said, I gather that she's got a kid of her own. Which means that she probably doesn't want to see someone as young as me not eating.

But as she turns to leave, Kakashi groans a little, stirring right out of sleep. "Ugh…I think I overdid it with my Sharingan."

"You think…?" I deadpan a little at his weak assertion. "I'd say that you more than overdid it."

"Hm…" Tsunami walks towards the futon, leaning over a little to get a good look at Kakashi. "Waking up, huh? Are you alright?"

"I've been better." Kakashi shifts the covers, sitting up painfully. "It'll be a week before I can move normally."

"See? It's better if you don't move, so just lie down." Tsunami's voice may be gentle, but she has quite a way with being demanding without seeming to be.

Kakashi sighs. "Right." He glances at me, before lying back down and covering himself back up with the blanket.

I slide over to him and slip my fingers under his headband. "You're a little feverish, but that should go away once you've gotten a bit more rest." _Though I'm not sure if I should… That's not a scene I want to see again…_

Kakashi nods a little, just as Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna come walking in. And Naruto is the first to heave a sigh of relief. "Look, Sensei's coming around."

"Listen, Sensei…" Sakura walks over and kneels down on my left side, staring at Kakashi. "Your Sharingan is amazing and everything, but if it puts that much strain on you, maybe it's not worth it."

"Sakura…" There's a fondness in Kakashi's eyes that seems both happy, as well as sad. Though I don't know nearly enough about him to fathom the reason why.

"Huh, well, you did just take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins, so we'll be safe for a while." Tazuna, though gruff, seems relieved and much less stressed out. He's also not cracking any jokes, which means that his crass humor is more stress relief than actual humor.

"Right… but you know that boy with the mask? What about him?" Sakura seems suspicious, or at least worried about what happened back in the forest. And I can't say that I blame her.

Kakashi's eye gains a gleam of focus. "He's from the elite tracking unit in the Village Hidden in the Mist. Those masks are only worn by the most elite shinobi."

"What exactly do they do?" As academy students, there would only have been brief mention about the workings of elite ninja. There are just some things that we're not allowed to know, classified intel and such. So it's no wonder that Sakura wants to know.

Kakashi nods slightly, which means that he'll be giving up an answer. "The ANBU Black Ops, also known as the Inferno Squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninja's corpse. The shinobi's body contains many secrets. Ninjutsu, chakra, special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village. If his enemies find them, his people would be in grave danger." It makes sense, especially in the cases involving Kekkai Genkai. "For instance, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy, he would try to analyze my Sharingan. In the worst case, my entire jutsu could be stolen and used against our home village. It's the secret duty of the shinobi trackers to prevent this, to keep the village secrets safe. If a ninja betrays his village, the trackers hunt him down, eliminate him, and obliterate every trace of his existence. That's their specialty."

Kakashi goes about sitting up, so I roll my eyes. "You know, you'll never recover if you insist on pushing yourself before you're ready. And besides, your leg muscles still need time to recover. Even with medical ninjutsu, there's only so much that can be done, you know that." Or at least, I sure hope that he does.

Kakashi raises a hand to his good eye, looking rather agitated. Naruto picks up on it quickly. "Hey, are you okay? Sensei!?"

"Hm?" Kakashi snaps out of it and his eyes find Naruto. "Oh, yeah. To finish what I was saying, tracker ninja deal with the body immediately, on the spot. So there's no room for error."

Sakura blinks. "Is that really important?"

Kakashi turns to her. "Think about it. Do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?"

Sakura frowns, thinking hard. "We…don't know what he did. I mean, I guess he took it away somewhere."

"Exactly, but why?" Kakashi is starting to turn this into some kind of school lecture. "He should have worked on Zabuza right there, as quickly as possible. Think of the weapons he used for the take-down. Do you remember what they were?"

"Throwing needles." Sasuke's face contorts into a frown of his own, and small crinkles appear between his eyebrows. It's a clear sign that he needs to smile more and frown less. "No way."

"Exactly. None of it adds up." Kakashi turns to me. "You're our medic for this mission, what are your thoughts on how Zabuza was taken down and taken away?"

I grit my teeth and try not to scowl. "You're right about the take-down, the use of needles in that situation was very odd. Only those of us who know the intricacies of human biology would dare to use them, otherwise we might miss our intended target by a half centimeter, or more." I take a few needles from my kit and show them. "We can target pressure points and particular veins, arteries and organs with them, even going so far as to sever nerves. But it takes extreme skill to do that, and I'm not confident that I could do it with the precision that he did, especially seeing as I haven't had a lot of secret practice time. Where he hit…it looked to me like the pressure points in the neck were hit. And if that's the case…well, I would have examined Zabuza myself, to make sure that he was dead. But you know that it's taboo for a medic to examine a corpse from another village without permission in times of peace."

Kakashi nods, but Tazuna doesn't seem to share our caution. "What are you all yammering about? You demolished that assassin."

Kakashi looks over at Tazuna, his gaze very serious, despite only being half visible. "Here's the truth. Zabuza's still alive."

Everyone looks startled, except, of course for me. Though Naruto is the only one to get loud about it. "But we saw his body! Believe it!"

"But, Kakashi-Sensei, you checked him yourself, you said that his heart stopped."

"His heart did stop." Kakashi's eyes flick to me. "But, that was just a temporary state to simulate death. The weapons that tracker used were called senbon. They can pierce deeply, but rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ, but not in the neck.

I nod my head. "I agree with you. I don't think that Zabuza is dead. Incapacitated, certainly, but not dead. That precision was…extraordinary. If it had been off by as little as a few millimeters, or as much as a couple of centimeters, the spinal cord or an artery could have been hit. And those would have caused very different effects. Those needles are not something I typically use, but I could if I had to. They require deadly precision."

"Exactly." Kakashi nods with approval at my analysis. "They're modified from needles used for medical treatments like acupuncture. Trackers are trained to know every detail of the human body. Causing the heart to stop temporarily while keeping the body alive is an easy matter for them. First, he carried Zabuza's body away, even though it's much heavier than he is. Second, he used the senbon, which have a precise effect, and are rarely fatal. From these two factors, we can conclude that the tracker wasn't trying to destroy Zabuza, he was trying to save him."

Tazuna is still skeptical. "Come on, you're over-thinking this aren't you?"

"In countering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly. Hesitation leads to disaster. Every shinobi knows this saying." With looks of disbelief ringing the room, Kakashi nudges me gently. "Ciara, why don't you show everyone what we're talking about. It might paint them a clearer picture."

"Alright." I turn towards the others and grab Sasuke by the arm.

He struggles a little, obviously confused. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Quiet down and stay still." I lay on hand on his shoulder, keeping his neck still for me, before pressing two of my fingers to the back of his neck. "The pressure points are here. Hitting them can knock a person out, while piercing them may allow for the kind of state that Zabuza was in. Though that's only if it was done correctly. It will simulate death without actually causing it. No breathing, no pulse, not even a twitch. But not dead. Not yet, anyway."

Everyone is silent, until Sasuke fidgets a little. "You done?"

"Yes." I let go of Sasuke, and cross my arms as he shuffles back over to where he was sitting earlier, keeping a wary eye on me. "If I were in that position, I would guess that shutting down the vital functions was so that he could collect Zabuza's body and revive him later. It wasn't to trick Zabuza, but us. Although, even under the best circumstances, Zabuza will be feeling the effects of that method for a few days. He'll suffer from numbness, a lack of balance, and some dizziness. He'll be staying put for a few days while he recovers. Longer, if he's not as strong as I think he is."

After that torrent of information, Sakura turns back to Kakashi. "Sensei, you said to prepare quickly, but how can we do that when you can barely move?"

Kakashi starts laughing amusedly. "I can still train you." He glances at me. "And if you're up for it, I could train you a little too. I'm interested to see how your abilities stack up against my students."

"Alright." I can see no reason to refuse, so it might end up being an interesting way to kill time. I just hope that it's nothing too basic, because I've been working on the basics for years. Secretly, of course, since no one is supposed to know that I'm actually a whole lot more talented than I look.

"Hold on!" Sakura protests. "A little last minute training won't make us strong enough to fight Zabuza! You could barely defeat him, even with your Sharingan. We have to be reasonable about this!"

"Sakura. Why was I able to stop Zabuza?" Kakashi fixes a stern look on her. "Because you all helped me. You're growing." He flicks his eyes to the unusually quiet blond. "Naruto, you've grown the most."

That quickly puts a smile on my best friend's face. "So you noticed, Kakashi-Sensei? Now, things are gonna get better, believe it!"

"I don't believe it, and nothing's gonna be good!" Our conversation is interrupted by a little kid, probably no more than eight, in a cream shirt, green overalls, and a white and blue hat.

Naruto doesn't take the interruption quietly. "Who are you!?"

Tazuna grins, holding his arms out for the boy. "Ah, Inari, where've you been?"

"Welcome back, Grandpa!" The little boy, Inari, races into Tazuna's arms, burying his head in the old man's shoulder.

Tsunami walks over to the boy and scolds him. "Inari, that was very rude. These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely."

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm rude to them too." Tazuna is far more indulgent of Inari's rudeness than he should be. Though I'm more curious about where it comes from, because this hostility seems a little too pronounced if you ask me.

Inari climbs out of his grandfather's arms and turns to his mother. "Mom, don't you see these people are gonna die? Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out."

"What did you say, brat!?" Naruto jumps to his feet, ready for a fight. "Listen up, do you know what a super-ninja is? Well, that's me, only a lot better. I'm gonna be Hokage! This Gato or Blato or whatever he's called is no match for a real hero like me!

"Huh, there's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas!" The kid obviously has no clue when to shut up, because he's picking a fight with someone who will never let it go.

"What'd you say!?" Naruto looks like he's ready to pounce on the kid for saying all that. So Sakura restrains him.

So I turn to the kid, hoping to ease the tension. "Don't worry about them. As long as I'm here, none of them are going to die. I'm a medical ninja, so I have a lot of skills designed for combat medics. I know how to treat people right in the middle of a battle. So as long as no one gets their head cut off, or their organs ripped out, I should be able to do something."

He scoffs. "If you wanna stay alive, you should go back where you came from." Then he walks right towards the door.

"Wait, Inari, where are you going?" Tazuna now looks concerned for his little grandson.

"To look at the ocean, I wanna be alone." Inari's eyes are defiant, but also pained and sad. Something happened to make him this way, I just don't know what.

With his grandson's exit, Tazuna turns to a growling Naruto. "Sorry about that."

But since this is Naruto, there's no way he's just going to let any of that slide without getting some answers. So, when Sakura releases him a minute later, he storms out of the room, heading in the same direction as Inari. He's planning to confront the kid about everything that he said. And I just let Naruto go, since he has the most right out of anyone to be giving the kid a hard time. And who knows, it might actually do the kid some good.


	11. Getting Familiar With Trees

**Okay, so here comes another late night/early morning update, the next chapter is well underway, and should be out later today (and I might have another chapter after that, depending on how much alone time I have). So, please enjoy.**

* * *

As promised, Kakashi brings us outside for training, though only after I managed to convince him to at least use some crutches to take the pressure off his injured legs. Once a medic, always a medic. And I can't very well have my patients going around and re-injuring themselves. That just makes more work for me. But injuries aside, for some unfathomable reason, he's chosen the nearby forest for our training session.

"Alright, training starts now." He's certainly quick to get down to business. "First, we will begin with a review of chakra, the ninja's basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential."

Sasuke scoffs with an imaptient bite to his voice. "We know that."

"He's right." Naruto grins. "A long time ago, we learned about, uh, catra." His mispronunciation of things makes me want to smack him sometimes. For now, I'll settle with a single sweatdrop.

"Chakra…" Kakashi sighs. "Go ahead, Sakura."

"Alright, Naruto, I'll explain it simply so you an understand it." Sakura puts her hands on her hips. "Chakra is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in jutsu. It's the source of all his power. Now, this energy has two forms. Physical energy, which exists in all the cells of the entire body all working together. And spiritual energy, the primal source of power which is intensified through training and experience. These two types of chakra must be drawn out and brought together in order to perform jutsu. The interplay between physical and spiritual power is the key. Finally, hand signs focus and unleash the chakra."

"Right on all points. Iruka-Sensei really did have some excellent students." I could swear that Kakashi is smiling behind that mask of his.

Naruto growls in frustration. "What's the big deal with all these complicated explanations? The whole point is to learn the jutsu, isn't it?"

"Naruto's right for once. We're already using chakra energy in our jutsu." I never though I'd see the day that Sasuke actually agrees with Naruto. I guess that's proof that miracles do happen.

"No!" Kakashi sighs. "You've not mastered this power, you've barely scratched the surface of it."

"What do you mean!?" Naruto is getting ever closer to blowing his top.

"Calm down and listen. It's just like Sakura said. You have to draw on physical and spiritual energies, and then combine them within yourself." His eyes flick briefly to me. "Each justs requires different types of chakra in different proportions. You must select and combine them in exactly the right way. Up to now, you've just guessed at the proportions, hoping they'd come out right. Even if you can produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's worthless. The jutsu won't work at all. Or it'll just be a joke." I know exactly what he's talking about there, it's Naruto's clones. "You waste so much energy there. Then you're out of chakra and you can;t fight at all. You're just a target." The only flaw with that logic is that Naruto never seems to run out of chakra, ever. And I think I know why.

Naruto scratches his head. "Uh, so how do we change that?"

Kakashi's gazes focus on me, and it almost feels like his Sharingan is staring at me through his headband. "Train so hard that controlling your chakra becomes second nature. To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line." His eye narrows. "Lord Hokage mentioned your training sessions to me when we were looking at the potential genin. Might I ask how severe they were?"

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry right now. So, I settle for a wry smile. "Severe enough that I can use medical ninjutsu, as well as two types of elemental ninjutsu, all while pretending to be an idiot at school, and spending most of my time hanging out with Naruto. The hour or so that I could get away from people every day was put to very good use."

"I see." He nods in appreciation of my efforts. "Well, then you might find this exercise easy."

Sakura clutches her hands to her chest. "What do we have to do?"

Kakashi laughs. "Climb a tree."

"Climb a tree!?" The other three have mixed expressions of shock and confusion. Though I think I know where Kakashi is going with this. And if he's doing what I think he is, then this exercise is going to be absolutely useless to me. Or, perhaps I should say redundant.

"That's right. But…there's just one rule." He lets go of his crutches for a moment as he holds up his hands. "No hands."

Sakura sweatdrops. "You're kidding." She obviously can't fathom what he's asking them to do.

"Am I?" Kakashi definitely isn't kidding, no matter how light-hearted he may sound right now. "Let's see." I can feel the chakra in the air as he focuses it towards the bottoms of his feet.

Then, like all he's doing is taking a walk in the park, Kakashi heads over to a large tree, puts foot on the trunk, and starts walking right up the side. I would probably be impressed, if it weren't for the fact that I do that with walls instead of trees. Its great for freaking out Iruka-Sensei.

Naruto's mouth drops open. "He's climbing…"

"Straight up. And he's only using his feet!" Sakura acts like she's never seen it before. Then again, I never do show people how I get up on the ceiling in the first place.

He finally stops when he's hanging upside down from one of the larger branches. "Well, you get the idea. Focus the chakra towards the soles of your feet, then use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."

"Wait a minute! That's a nice trick, but how does it help us fight Zabuza!?" Sakura, for all her brains, obviously doesn't get the point.

"Hm…" Kakashi shifts his gaze from Sakura to me. "Why don't you give this a try. Judging by the skills I've seen you use, you might be able to pick this up quickly. Do you mind giving them something to look up to?" He's goading me, gently, but I can see it there as clear as day.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…" This is pretty boring, but before he can say another word, I walk up to one of the trees, letting chakra flow into my feet, and I walk straight up the trunk of the tree. Then I start to run up the trunk, kicking off one of the higher branches and flying through the air, attaching myself to the underside of a thick branch on another tree. "Well, that was fun." I brush a couple of twigs off my clothes and stare at Kakashi. "Is that good enough? Or would you like me to climb a cliff next?"

Kakashi looks impressed, to say the least. "I see that the precise chakra control needed for your medical ninjutsu, and that wind style technique you used are applicable here. Nicely done. I can see how you made thirty clones without breaking a sweat during your graduation exam." Iruka-Sensei must have told him about that. Or Gramps, there's always that possibility as well.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, no kidding. And I used to annoy Iruka-Sensei by hanging upside down from the ceiling of the classroom every morning, and sometimes after lunch. Everyone kept wondering how I did it." I glance at Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke. "Now you know." I glance back over at Kakashi. "Chakra control is something that I have in spades. So…if this is all that you were planning on having us do, can I go? There's other stuff I could be doing, like guard duty, or scouting out the village. There's not much point in practicing a skill that I've already started using to annoy people."

He nods, then turns back to Sakura. "This is the only way to fight him, Sakura. That's the entire goal of this training. As you can see, your classmate has already figured out how to do this, and just about perfectly too. First, you'll learn to draw a precise amount of chakra to a precise point in the body. This is difficult, even for advanced ninja. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy. And the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult points to focus chakra." He may be explaining well, but it feels like his patience is wearing thin. "Are you getting the picture now? If you can master this, you'll be able to master any jutsu. Well, theoretically."

I scoff a little. "Theoretically is right, not everyone can learn the same kinds of jutsu, it just doesn't work that way."

He nods. "Fair point. The second point is to learn to maintain your chakra focus. When a ninja is focused in battle, it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels. A deadly mistake. To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become second nature. Effortless. Well, I can talk about this all day, but that won't advance your skills, will it? You need to apply the power of chakra through training." He produces three kunai and hurls them at the ground, embedding them in the soil in front of each of them. "Use the kunai knife to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb, without using your hands. Then, try to get past that mark the next time. And the next."

I yawn, feeling rather bored, so I focus my chakra to my thighs instead, and sit down on the tree branch, upside down. "Is there anything else I can do? Or would you rather have me stick around to give them pointers?"

"No, I think I can take care of that." Kakashi smiles at me, at least, I think it's a smile, before getting right back down to business. "At first, you'll need to run at the tree so that your momentum can take you as high as possible, until you get used to it. Ready?"

Naruto leans down and pulls the kunai in front of him out of the dirt. "I'm more than ready! This is gonna be no sweat all the way, believe it!" He points up at Kakashi. "Remember what you said, Sensei, I'm the one who's grown the most!"

"Definitely the one who talks the most…" He's definitely right there, Naruto has no idea how to shut up most of the time. "Now get focused and do it!"

Naruto pouts a little, but with Kakashi barking orders, the three of them stand perfectly still, focusing their chakra down into their feet. So far, they're doing well. But I highly doubt that any of them are going to succeed on the first try.

"Alright!" Naruto grins widely, focusing on the tree as he moves forwards. And when he hits the tree, he makes it up a grand total of two steps. Not a very impressive start. I could get up at least ten feet, and that's without chakra.

Sasuke, on the other hand, manages to take twelve steps up the trunk, only to use too much chakra, breaking the bark and throwing him off the tree. But on the bright side, he still manages to mark where he got to, and it's fairly good for an inexperienced first try.

But what catches my eye is the pink-haired member of their team, who manages to get up just high enough to grab onto a branch and swing herself up. She made it higher than either of the boys, but she's still about thirty feet below where I'm sitting upside down.

"Hey, this is fun!" She kicks her legs into the air, grinning at her success.

That gets everyone's attention pretty fast. And Kakashi's raises an eyebrow. "Well, it looks like the female member of the squad has the most advanced chakra control. Well done, Sakura."

Instead of being angry over his failure, Naruto grins for his teammate. "Yeah! Way t go, Sakura! I always knew you were awesome, believe it!"

"Whatever." Sasuke turns away from Sakura, which doesn't go over very well with the girl who is clearly infatuated with the moron.

"Well, not only does Sakura understand chakra, she can control and maintain it as well. We spoke about someone becoming Hokage, weren't we?" Kakashi is going straight for Naruto's sore spot. "Seems Sakura's got the best chance of that, wouldn't you say? And as for the great Uchiha Clan, maybe they're not so great after all." Not only did he hit Naruto where it hurt, but he got Sasuke as well, judging by the irritated look on his face.

Sakura doesn't take teasing Sasuke lightly. "That's enough, you talk too much, Sensei!"

While his words light a fire under the two boys down there, Kakashi glances up at me. "Are you just going to sit there all day? I do believe this counts as showing off, now."

I shrug, my eyes fixed on the boys. "You're leading this mission, so until you tell me what else I can go and do, I'm kind of stuck up here with nothing to do. Besides, I can keep this up for a while longer, so if you're worried about me falling and cracking my skull open, don't be." _Not that I could crack my skull open anyway._ My eyes drift to my stomach. _There's no way that my little hitch-hiker would allow something like that to happen._

Naruto glares up at me, but it's not the hostile kind of glare, it's the one of a boy ready to rise to his best friend's challenge. "Alright! First I'll match Sasuke, then I'm going all the way to the top! Believe it!" He points up at me. "And then, I'll get as good as you, and pop in on the old man in his office! He won't know what hit him!"

I sigh a little. _And here I thought that he'd grown out of his pranking phase…_ "Whatever. Just try not to break any bones, you know how much I hate healing those."

Unlike Sasuke, who had expressed surprise at my being a medical ninja, Naruto already had an idea about it. That's not to say that he knew much about it, since I usually only ever treated him while he was out cold, and I never really elaborated on the methods I used to treat him. He just chalked it all up to a magic touch. Though really, I have the Nine-Tales to thank for helping me heal Naruto. And it's no wonder. I doubt that a demon would want their vessel scratched.

I glance at my stomach again, where my passenger is sealed deep within me. _I know that I heard it speak when I was little…because it spoke again in that battle with Zabuza. I think._ These little incidents, whether it's really the being inside me speaking, or not, make me wonder if I'll ever actually get to hold a conversation with it. I don't even know its name, or if it's male or female. All I know is that it's in there somewhere, and I have no way or reason to get it out. So you'd think that the least it could do would be to talk to me to relieve my boredom, or just to help me out.

"Hey, Ciara." Kakashi calls to me, and I look over at him, craning my neck a little as he smiles at me. "Since this training is something you've clearly already mastered, why don't you go into the village and check things out there? You do know how to do reconnaissance and infiltration, right?"

"Of course." I cut off the concentrated chakra flow to my legs, detaching myself from the underside of the branch. I use my hands to push myself away from the tree, slamming my feet into the next one and doing a half back-flip. My feet slam back against the first tree, hitting the second after a half front flip, and finally, a full back-flip that takes me right down to the ground. And the residual chakra still leaking from my feet cushions the impact of my feet hitting the hard ground.

With the three other genin gawking at me, I raise my hand and wave goodbye to them. Then, once I'm out of sight, I determine my position, and make a beeline for the village. It's best to get this mini-mission underway as soon as possible.

* * *

 **AngelSayori, you get my applause. You have deduced well, considering that I was going for the naming and speech patterns of a talkative toddler, which are not always the clearest indication of what they're actually talking about. Besides...honestly, "Chi-Chi" and "Shi-Shi" are much easier for a 3 year old to say. Plus, it's really cute.**

 **Okay, so since there's some serious timeline stuff going on, I'll lay it out right here.**

 **Dream- Memory from when Ciara was about 3 years old (eaning that the scene actually did happen sometime in her past).**

 **Shiryugu Slaughter - Ciara was 5 (this was in chapter 1).**

 **Uchiha Massacre - One year before Ciara joined the Academy, but a couple of years after her own clan's slaughter (Sasuke was about eight years old when he Uchiha bit it, and he's 12, almost 13 when they graduate). There's a 4/5 year age gap between Itachi and Sasuke, which would make Itachi about 13 at the time of the massacre, as well as newly accepted to the position of ANBU captain. A few years later, he's a 17 year old working in the Akatsuki and trying to "capture" Naruto. So that fits in the canon timeline (provided that I've done all of my math correctly).**

 **Academy - Ciara joins at the age of 8 (So Naruto would have been about 8 and a half, and Sasuke almost 9). After the attack it took three years to stabilize her, and for the first few months, she wouldn't speak to anyone (three guesses who got her talking again).**

 **Sasuke's birthday is a few months after graduation (if we reckon by the Japanese school year starting in April and ending in March), so he turns 13 in July, while Ciara's birthday is in the spring, so she turned 12 just before graduation (I'm thinking between March 21st and 24th), meaning that she's actually the better part of a year younger than Sasuke, and about half a year younger than Naruto, whose birthday is in October.**

 **Most of the actual details about how this all went down (meaning her "before the academy" days) are going to be explored through dreams she has (memories resurfacing that were prevously forgotten or repressed because of trauma or other ill feeings; ex: sadness, loneliness, anger, etc...), and there will be several featuring her two favorite uncles. Because I really just want to portray the Uchiha boys before everything got screwed up.**

 **It also makes for some nice conflict later. Like when Itachi shows up again...**

 **BTW, she doesn't yet know that Sasuke is Itachi's little brother, only that she's related to Sasuke in a few ways.**


	12. A Kind Demon

**Okay, so just a heads-up, for her demon, I'm going with the idea that not all the tailed beasts are bitter and miserable old farts. I realize that there are some that are (Kurama, for the most part), and who would love nothing more than to escape their hosts, and kill everything around them (Shukaku, who is clearly psychotic), but that's clearly not true for all of them (Son Goku, who isn't really as scary as he pretends to be), as the manga has shown us. Instead of sticking around to destroy everything in sight, they all just left to find themselves new or old homes. Simple, and peaceful.**

 **Also, the notion of nine demons making up an enormous demon with ten tails puzzled me a little. It's like…okay, so if there's basically a demon for each tail, then what about the tenth tail? The count just seemed a little off to me. So, what about another demon that isn't so…Godzilla-like? None of that 'must smash everything in sight' and 'humans are the scourge of the earth' stuff. Just a nice one…**

 **So, this chapter is going to be about exploring a little of that. No power involved, just…a pleasant little chat.**

 **Also, some Ciara and Sakura moments in this chapter.**

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My first stop for scouting is, of course, the bridge. After all, that's the place where there will likely be an ambush, attack, or sabotage if there is any. It's all about prioritizing. And right now, the bridge is the place that carries the most risk for being targeted by Gato's forces. Hence, why I took a detour here first, before I head into the village later.

I'm also hoping that Tazuna will point me in the right direction once I'm in the village. I'd rather be looking around with a purpose, rather than just wandering aimlessly. And I'm sure that old grump has some idea on where to start.

Then again, wandering aimlessly doesn't really sound too bad.

But while I'm waiting and looking around for possible sabotage, of which there is none as far as I can tell, I end up watching the workers and learning what each of the workers does. At least until Sakura joins me on the edge of the construction site. And despite finally having someone to talk to, Sakura is the one who initiates the conversation, not me. "So, when did you learn such good chakra control?"

I shrug. "I've always had naturally good chakra control. And on top of that, I just…practiced more than others. But if you want a time…then I guess my chakra control spiked when I was about nine. That's when I started getting really good at medical ninjutsu. Remember? That's when I started getting in trouble for hanging on the ceiling."

"Oh right! Iruka-Sensei was so mad! And now I know how you pulled that off!" She grins at me, and kicks her feet a little. "So why didn't you actually try at the academy? If you'd made an effort, you might even have beaten me and Sasuke!"

I huff impatiently. "Because I already got enough hassle for being friends with Naruto. I didn't need everyone calling me a stuck up, snobby genius as well." Attention is fine, but only if it's the right kind. And honestly, academy students never give their peers the right kind of attention.

That quiets her down a little. "Oh…so that's it." She fidgets a little, seemingly confused. "Why are you friends with a space case like Naruto anyway? You seem a lot cooler than that."

"Why…?" That very question makes me ill. "Because Naruto is a good person. Because even if no one else has my back, he does. Because he's not as stupid as everyone thinks he is. Because he only acts like an idiot to get the attention that no one will pay him otherwise!" I realize that I'm nearly shouting now, so I hush my voice. "I'm his friend, because he's the only real friend I've had in a very long time."

"Oh…" That quiets her down a little. Until she yawns a bit.

"You always this lazy?" Tazuna walks by with a beam on his shoulder. "Where's that weird blond kid and the one with the attitude?"

"They're training to climb a tree." Sakura grins happily, which actually isn't a bad look for her. It beats her smug face.

Tazuna raises an eyebrow. "Too tough for the two of you?"

Sakura's smile quickly becomes smug. "N, in fact, we're the best. That's why Sensei sent me here to guard you."

I look at him rather boredly, before shifting my eyes around in another sweep. "I'm just here keeping an eye on the site. I was told to do some looking around, just to make sure that things are safe here. I'll be going to check out the village later, since I was hoping that you would be able to point me in the right direction." Then I smirk. "And as for the tree climbing, I've been climbing up buildings for years. So I just walked up the side of the tree and glued myself to one of the branches to hang upside down while they all gave it their best shot."

Tazuna looks at us in disbelief. "You're joking."

Sakura is obviously not used to being underestimated like that. She's been coddled at the academy, and doesn't like it when she's thrown into this kind of situation. I just smile and shake my head. "No joke. I was pretty impressed that she made it halfway up the tree and onto a branch on her first try. I thought for sure she'd be like the boys and land on her ass, but I was wrong."

That little comment quickly has Sakura glaring at me. And Tazuna just gives a snide chuckle as he continues walking to the other side of the bridge to put down his materials. It's no wonder that he's got such well-built muscles for an old guy. Lugging around beams like that all the time must do wonders for his health.

Then, one of the workers approaches the old man, and I watch the two carefully as he stops right behind him. "Tazuna, uh…I need to talk to you."

"Huh?" Tazuna turns around and wipes some sweat from his face. "What about?"

"Uh, thing is…I've been thinkin' a lot about the bridge. And I decided that I've pushed my luck far enough, I want out." The guy is giving up on the bridge project just like that. But maybe it's just because I've been around Naruto too long, that I feel like giving up on this huge a project is unthinkable.

Tazuna is rubbed right the wrong way. "Now you're going to quit on me, just like that!? You're kidding!"

"You know, I stayed on because of our friendship, and I'm putting my life on the line every day that I stay here." He's scared. "Gato and his thugs will show up eventually. When they do, they'll kill you, and the bridge will never get finished anyway." He sighs. "It's a lost cause, Tazuna. Why don't we stop now, while we can still get out of this alive?"

Sakura gasps a little, her hands shaking a bit. So I pat her on the head and smile. "Don't worry, this is what we're here for. I'll have your back if anything happens, okay?"

She nods. "Okay…" And then, her eyes drift back to the two disgruntled older men.

Tazuna's voice is a low growl. "No chance. This is our bridge. Our island is poor, and it will stay that way until this bridge connects us to the mainland. Commerce, trade, and hope! That's what we're building here!"

"There's not gonna be much hope if we're all dead." The worker has a point, but they do seems to be forgetting that they've got Leaf ninja here to make sure that doesn't happen.

Tazuna scoffs quietly. "It's already noon, let's break for lunch."

"Tazuna, let's not end it like this." His friend reaches out, seemingly trying to repair this relationship before it gets any worse. And he's failing miserably.

"Save your breath." Tazuna looks back at him out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, and Giichi, don't bother coming back after lunch." Tazuna stalks off, a profound scowl on his face.

I sigh and sit back against the railing. "Men and their egos… If they would just take a chance to sit down and talk for a few minutes, then they could probably work things out half the time, instead of making things worse." Sakura nods quietly, though remains silent. I think that seeing this has had an emotional impact on her, and that' not a good thing, especially if it distracts her from the mission.

* * *

After sitting around for the rest of the afternoon, watching Tazuna and what's left of his crew work, Sakura and I accompany him into the village. My eyes tend to shift around, watching for anything suspicious, as well as taking in the state of all of the buildings. If we were home, most of these buildings would be breaking a dozen codes, at least. They're so broken and rundown that it's hard to believe that anyone actually lives in them.

Sakura looks around as well, though for a very different reason. "Where are we going?"

"You wanna eat tonight, don'cha?" Tazuna's attitude has softened now, but I suppose that's because the workday is over, and he no longer has to play foreman. "I gotta pick up some things for dinner."

Dinner. From the looks of these people, that's something that many of them would probably be lucky to have. They look thin, worn, and tired. And there are several people walking around, holding signs up to try and get a job, any job. This is what desperation looks like, and I don't like it.

"Thief, thief!" A voice hollers across the market, and I catch a glimpse of the thief out of the corner of my eye. And normally, it would probably be a good idea to catch the thief. But in a place like this, that would hardly solve the problem. And besides, no kid should have to go without food.

But there is something here that reminds me of home, it would be the utter poverty, and the lost and hopeless looks on the people's faces. And those memories are not oncs that I'm fond of. They're memories of the villagers who always throw Naruto cold, hateful looks. They all glare at him like they wish that he would die. Which is why, over the years, I've improved my medicine-making skills by taking up cooking for Naruto. No one knows about what's lurking deep within my body, so they don't throw me out of stores the way that they do Naruto. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to tell Teuchi how much it means to me that he treats Naruto so kindly. That old ramen cook is one of a kind.

But here, these people looks so hopeless, that it reminds me of Naruto's face whenever he would try to get attention as a kid. I know that I lavished attention on him, and him on me, but that was never enough.

These people don't deserve to be treated this way by some rich tycoon who thinks that he can just lord his money and status above everyone else. This is wrong, and there's no other way to say it. And if that means that Gato has to die to save these people, then I hope that he shows his ugly face, because now, I'm itching to put a kunai through his brain.

Tazuna's voice drags me back out of my homicidal thoughts as we walk into a store. "Here we are."

The shopkeeper bows. "Welcome."

I look around, and what I see makes me sick. There's barely any food in the store, and what is here hardly looks fresh. _This is what they have to choose from? And these prices…_ It's almost as bad as what the shopkeepers that don't throw Naruto out immediately charge him. That's the whole reason that I convinced him a long time ago to let me go out and get the groceries for him. There's no sense in wasting money because of the hatred and prejudice of fools.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a man walk in, eyeing Sakura's bag. _A thief, huh?_ And as he reaches for it, I snatch up his wrist and shake my head. "Bad move."

Sakura spins around, her eyes glued to where I've got my hand on the man's wrist, realizing where it had nearly touched. "Pervert!" She kicks him right in the face, hurling him backwards, and leaving him to crumple to the ground.

I walk over to examine the guy, while Tazuna picks and pays for his groceries. "Huh…more likely a thief than a pervert, but who knows…could be either one, I guess." Tazuna and Sakura start to walk out of the store, so I walk over and follow behind them, keeping my eye out for anything suspicious.

Tazuna chuckles slightly. "Wow, you really surprised me back there. Girls around here don't fight like that."

"They should! Something's seriously wrong here!" Sakura fumes, obviously still under the impression that the man was going for her ass. Then, a kid grabs onto the back of her clothes, and she spins around. "Hey buster-" But her words get choked off when she sees a kid instead of a pervert.

Recovering from the shock, the kid holds up his hands and smiles. "Please?"

Sakura's heart looks like it breaks a little in that moment. Then she goes for her pockets. "Uh…" She finds some candy stashed there, so she places the small sugary balls in the kid's hands. "Here.

The kid's eyes glitter, and I could swear that I can hear the faint sound of his tummy grumbling. "Oh, thank you." Then he runs off, maybe to share the candies with his friends. After all, there's no way that a kid that small would be able to survive out here on their own.

Tazuna sighs. "This is how it's been since Gato came here. The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope. That's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring commerce and trade, but much more importantly, that bridge is a symbol of courage. We must restore the spirit of our people. When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again." His heart is in that bridge, that's obvious enough. "They'll believe that they can live with dignity. We can't let Gato stop us."

"Yeah…" I turn to Sakura and Tazuna. "You two go on ahead of me. I've got something to do here." I can't just leave these people like this. My conscience would destroy me if I did.

Sakura looks at me hesitantly. "Are you sure? Kakashi-Sensei won't like it if you get into trouble."

I nod. "Don't worry, I won't be getting into any trouble. There's just something that I need to do. I'll look around for anything suspicious at the same time. I'll fulfill the mission I was assigned, and I'll fulfill my own mission as well. In fact, in doing what I want, I should be able to poke around and eavesdrop all I like. Alright?"

Sakura nods. "Alright, then I'll tell Kakashi-Sensei that you'll be late."

"Thanks." Once they're out of sight, I start making my way around the town, looking for the sick, the young and the elderly. I may not have a farm inside my pack, but I've got chakra flowing through me, and that should be enough to deal with any injuries I come across.

I spend hours tending to them with my medical ninjutsu, and there are so many that it makes me feel worse and worse. I hate seeing people in this state. I've seen more than enough death for one lifetime, though I know that as a ninja, it will only get worse.

About forty-three healing sessions, and a handful of whispers and rumors later, I soon become so tired that I nearly pass out while healing a child. But a voice echoes through my head. _Keep pushing…you can do this._ And for some reason, energy surges into me.

I finish healing the child and she gives me a big hug. "Thank you nice lady!" The way that she clings to me reminds me of the days when I was small, and would cling to my uncles like that.

Once she's run off down the alley, I look into my own mind, searching for that voice. _Who are you? Where are you? How did you talk to me like that?_

 _Because I am within you._ The voice is distinctly male, but it sounds both old and young at the same time. It sounds like the voice of a young man, but it speaks like it has seen ages rise and fall.

 _Who are you?_

 _My name is Suzaku. You would know me as that bright light that was sealed inside you seven years ago. I am the one who saved your life, at the cost of your uncle's. What happened was…regrettable, but I could not save his life. He used what was left of his chakra to save you, and died moments later, with nothing left to heal himself._

I'm deeply shocked, I mean, who wouldn't be if all of a sudden, a second person started a conversation with you in your own head. _You're…you're the one from that day? But…you can talk? I mean, you want to talk to me? Why? Don't you hate being inside me? Why are you being so nice to me? Doesn't this make me nothing more than your cage? I'm basically your jailer, aren't I?_

A pleasant vibrating echoes inside my head, and I realize that he's laughing. _I am not like some of the others… For example, the one inside your friend, the fox, he is not fond of humans, and that is why he attacked the Hidden Leaf Village all those years ago. But I am not like him…I have been free for much of my existence, and I have never had a jinchuuriki before. This is new to me, just as it is to you. But fear not, I am far fonder of humans than the others of my kind. You have nothing to fear from me, Chick. I made this choice of my own free will, and I will watch over and protect you from inside you._

 _But what are you exactly? I only saw a bright light that day, I have no idea what you look like!_

 _I am a bird made of flames, with ten tails…the last piece of a great puzzle._ He begins to retreat back into the depths of my mind. _Chick, if you need me, I will be here, with my chakra, knowledge, and counsel at your disposal. I will do my best to protect and guide you. But your destiny is your own to create._

He disappears from my conscious mind, though now, I can actually feel where he is inside me, kind of like a warmth that emanates from the deepest reaches of my mind. And as I return to Tazuna's home, I resist the urge to prod at Suzaku.

Kakashi is sitting at the dinner table, with food next to him, the others likely already gone to bed. "You're back a little late, aren't you?" He watches me with a sharp eye, but I don't tremble under his gaze. He pushes the food towards me. "I saved you some dinner."

"Thank you." I sit down at the table and gobble it all down quickly. Though it makes me a little sick to think that I'm in here, stuffing my face, while there are people out there starving. However, I know well enough that I won't be much use to them in a weakened condition. So, in the interests of protecting the people here, I will eat.

Kakashi scrutinizes me while I eat, and I'm not sure if he knows that I know he's doing it or not. "So, where else did you go today? I thought you were just doing some reconnaissance." I have a feeling that he knows more than he's letting on, but he's giving me the chance to speak first. That's a wise move.

I glance at him, then down at my kit. "I was out doing my duty as a medical ninja, I was out healing people. I saw a lot of sick and injured in the streets on the way back from the bridge, so I let Sakura bring Tazuna back, and I stayed out there to tend to as many people as I could."

Kakashi sighs. "It's alright to help people, but you shouldn't tire yourself out to do it. We still have a mission to complete, and it won't help if you're out of chakra."

I reluctantly agree with him. "Fine, but don't worry about my chakra levels, I've got plenty to spare. And I heard a few things about Gato, people will tell almost anything to their healer. And no one would suspect me of gathering information and tending to the injured and sick at the same time. It's not much, but I wrote it all down here." I dig a piece of paper out of my pocket, where I'd recorded anything I heard about the man, as well as anything illegal or dubious I heard about. You can never be too careful, and anything might be relevant. "But I doubt that much of it is going to be helpful. It seems that there's nothing concrete, apart from the fact that he terrifies everyone, has a lot of money, and has an army of thugs at his disposal, along with some ninja, apparently."

He nods, then sighs and pats my head, noticing that I've finished eating. "Alright, then go to bed. There's going to be as much work tomorrow as there was today, as long as you don't push yourself to do even more. So get some sleep and stay on your toes. I want you well rested for guard duty, is that understood?"

Stretching my arms, I get to my feet. "Alright. Just don't wake me up at the crack of dawn, I'm not much of a morning person, and Naruto knows that."

I walk out of the dining room and into the room I share with Naruto. No one else wanted to share a room with him, so I volunteered. It makes me feel just a little bit safer too. He's asleep and snoring already, and while normally I would rag on him for snoring, right now, in a foreign land, it's comforting to be able to fall asleep, wrapped in the sound and presence of my best friend.


	13. Best Friends

**Alright, so, it's time for me to do a happy dance. I've officially managed to get my average word count up past 3k words per chapter. That makes me feel quite good. And I plan on just making the average go on up from there.**

 **On another note, I've had terrible writer's block for a few days, so I'm getting seriously behind on my writing schedule. I will do what I can to catch up. For now, please take this nice chapter, and I'll do what I can to get another one up today.**

* * *

I must have been completely wiped out the last couple of nights, because when morning comes and I open my eyes, Naruto is no longer there, again. I usually wake up if someone starts shuffling around my room. I stare at the futon that still has traces of Naruto's presence, and frown. _Jeez…I know that I used up a ton of chakra the last couple of days, but still, I'm never this out of it…_

I slide my blankets off, then look to the side of the room, where my clothes have been freshly cleaned. _Tsunami must have done that… I'll have to thank her when I go down to breakfast._

Pulling the clothes towards me, I change quickly, then head straight for my pack. I open up the top and peer inside, taking inventory of the supplies I have left. _Hm…I'm starting to run low on bandages… But, I suppose that I can always pick up more on the way home. Then again, I do have that stash of supplies at home that never seems to get any smaller. In fact, I could swear that it's been getting bigger. Gramps must be behind it…_

I close my pack back up and rest it against the wall. I'll be able to come back for it later, since there's no point in having it around during breakfast. Leaving it behind, I saunter downstairs to see Kakashi and Sasuke already at the table, and Tsunami in the kitchen.

I glance at Tsunami and smile. "Thank you for washing my clothes."

She turns around and smiles back. "It's no problem. They looked awfully dirty, though. What in the world were you doing?"

I take a seat and laugh nervously. "Uh…well, I spent most of last couple of nights walking through the village, gathering information and stuff. So that's why I got back so late. I ate some food and went straight to bed once I got back."

She frowns a little. "Well, don't stay out too late. The streets are dangerous at night." I nod in response, and start dropping food into my mouth. It's going to be yet another long day for me and Sakura. Especially since Naruto and Sasuke are still struggling with their tree-climbing exercises.

A few minutes later, Sakura comes into the dining room, yawning. "Good morning, everyone." Then she sits herself down next to me, quite closely.

"Here." Tsunami places a plate of food on the table for her. It's a breakfast for champions. Well, ninja, anyway.

Sakura smiles. "Thank you." Then, she starts digging in.

My eyes drift to Kakashi, who is fidgeting a bit. It's quite strange to see a jounin fidget, since we're the ones who are supposed to be nervous here.

Tazuna scans the table one more time, before his eyes flick towards the stairs. "Naruto's not here? Looks like he was out all night again."

Sakura rubs her eyes again. "He's gone completely crazy. He's out climbing trees in the dark. He could be dead by now, you know, from using up too much of his chakra." She seems to be seriously underestimating how much chakra Naruto has. I doubt that it's even possible for him to die of chakra depletion.

"Well, I certainly hope he's okay." Tsunami purses her lips. "A child spending the night in the woods alone…"

Kakashi brushes it off. "There's nothing to worry about. Naruto's a goofy kid, but he's also a full-fledged ninja. He can handle himself.

"Sakura's right." Sasuke finally speaks up, and it's nothing more than doom-saying. "Naruto's such a loser, he's probably lying out there dead somewhere."

I scoff and roll my eyes. "Oh, ye of little faith. Naruto is fine, trust me. He's not going to drop dead from training, he's too stubborn to go out like that."

Sasuke glances at me, skepticism in his eyes. Then, he rises from the table, startling Sakura. "Sasuke?"

He stops for a moment, but doesn't turn around. "I'm going for a walk."

"Huh? But we just started eating." Sakura looks down at his plate as he closes the door behind him, only to find the plate empty. "Huh?" Her eyebrow twitches. "That was fast."

"Speaking of fast…" I push my plate away from me and stand up. "I'm done, so I'll be going upstairs to get my stuff."

Kakashi nods. "Come back down once you're ready, I want us all to meet in the woods before we start the day, alright?"

I blink at him, registering this new order. "Alright." I turn to the stars, ready to pick up my supplies.

 _I wonder what he has planned for us this time…_

* * *

I think that I'm starting to pick up on some of Kakashi's eccentricities. His mind is almost like a cluster of spider webs. One strand of thought might not obviously connect to another, but somewhere, there's something that connects them together. And it's in those connecting strands, that his true intentions lie.

Now, if only I could figure out what tangent he's planning on going off on this time…

Sakura looks around, her hands cupped around her mouth. "Naruto!" She sighs frustratedly. "Knowing Naruto, he could be anywhere. And Sasuke hasn't come back either. I wonder where they are."

My ears twitch as a slight whistling sound comes flying through the air towards me. And it's a sound I know well. Swinging my left hand down past my leg, I swipe a kunai out of the air as it hurtles past my leg. Then, I look up into the trees with a smile. "Figures…"

Naruto grins down at us, and Sakura's jaw drops. "Whoa, Naruto can climb that high now, using his chakra? That's great!"

His laughter echoes through the trees. "What do you think, high enough for you guys yet? I mean, it's a long way down, huh?" He pushes himself up on the branch, getting unsteadily to his feet. Then, the fool loses his balance.

"Naruto!" Sakura's hands clench in fright.

And Kakashi looks up, a surprised frown on his face. "Uh-oh."

Worried, I spring forwards, ready to catch him in case he falls. Even if he's bigger than me, it's better for someone to break his fall if it comes to that. And I'll be damned if I let my best friend give himself a concussion just because he wants to be a daredevil.

But just as Sakura screams, Naruto swings down under the branch, his feet still firmly attached to the tree. Now, he's hanging upside down, and the idiot nearly gave us all a heart attack. Then, he has the nerve to laugh. "Just kidding! You guys really fell for it!"

Sakura glares up at him. "We were worried about you, Naruto!"

Kakashi sweatdrop. "Why do I think this is going to end badly?"

"Because it's Naruto…" I grit my teeth and move closer to the tree, stopping directly underneath him. "If he doesn't find trouble, trouble finds him."

And truer words were never spoken, because his feet detach from the tree, startling all of us. "Ah! You just had to push it, didn't you, show-off?" Sakura's hit the nail on the head there, Naruto's showing off is going to get him killed one of these days.

But before Naruto can fall more than a few feet, Sasuke speeds up the side of one of the trees, leaping towards Naruto and grabbing onto his ankle, while attaching his own feet to the branch that Naruto fell from. And like a couple of idiots, the two of them hang there, upside down.

I can just hear the suppressed sigh in Sasuke's voice. "You really are a total loser, Naruto."

Naruto quickly comes to his sense "Sasuke!"

Sakura shrieks. "Alright, Sasuke! You're the best!"

"If I'm still sane by the time I finish their training, it'll be a miracle…" The prophecy of doom comes straight from Kakashi's mouth. And frighteningly enough, he's probably right.

"Well, falling from that height could really have hurt…" I stare up at Naruto and Sasuke, then grin. "Hey! You can go ahead and drop him, now! I'll catch him!"

There's no hesitation in Sasuke's eyes when he releases Naruto's ankle. I smirk a little at him as Naruto starts falling through the air. Jerk.

Naruto, on the other hand, screeches high and loud. "Sasuke! You bastard! I'm gonna kill you for this!"

I roll my eyes and let my chakra flow, mainly into my arms and legs. It's the same principle as my medical ninjutsu, as well as the chakra focus that they've all been working on in order to climb chakra pulses five times, before Naruto comes crashing into me. The chakra in my limbs breaks his fall, and cushions the impact, but it still knocks me off my feet and sends the two of us rolling through the grass.

Naruto groans a little, one hand pressing against the ground, the other a little closer to my chest than I would like. Then again, it doesn't really bother me yet. I've got a few years to wait before that kind of accident becomes uncomfortable.

Taking a deep breath, I push Naruto off me and sit up. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?"

He flops over onto his back and grins. "Nice save, Ciara!"

A snort of laughter escapes me. "Yeah, well don't go and expect it again. The next time you feel like showing off, I'm definitely going to let you fall on your head."

Shaking my head, I get up from the ground, and Kakashi sweatdrops again. "Well, now that all of the excitement is over, why don't you ladies go on ahead to the bridge. It seems that these two still need some time to train before joining you."

"Alright." I turn to Sakura and grab her by the hand, marching in the direction of the bridge. "Come on, we'd better not be late."

"Okay!" She doesn't tug her hand out of my grip, seemingly content to just keep up with me instead.

* * *

Sakura and I lounge about, keeping a watchful eye on the workers on the bridge. An enemy could strike at any moment, so it does well to be prepared for anything. Though that doesn't mean that we're going to get much action. Right now, the most entertaining thing to do is gossip. And I hate gossip. Almost as much as interrogations.

Sakura, on the other hand, seems to love them, as she stares at me with sparkling eyes. "So, Ciara, you're teamed up with Hiro and Akito, right? What are they like? Are they really just a couple of goofballs who skip class?"

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Of course they're a couple of goofballs who liked to skip class." Those two skipped so much that some people actually forgot that those two were in our class in the first place. "But they just skipped most of the time because they were bored. I mean, why stay in class if you're not really learning anything?"

"Not learning anything?" She looks confused. "But we learned plenty. How could they graduate if they weren't learning what we were doing in class?"

I smirk a little. She's got no idea… "Simple. They already knew what we were covering in class. In fact, the two of them could have graduated earlier, but they were held back so that they could be put on a special team. And for that, the last member had to graduate, first. At least, that's what Yuki-Sensei said."

Sakura's mouth drop open. "Wait a second, so you're saying that they were more advanced than the rest of the class, but they were kept in the academy until you graduated, just so that they could be put on a team with you?"

I nod. "That about sums it up. They were held back for my sake. So they decided to play hooky all the time, since it's not like it would really affect their grades anyway. Those two are a lot smarter than people give them credit for." At least, that was the distinct impression that I got when we introduced ourselves to Yuki-Sensei that first day.

Sakura stares at me as though I'm the most interesting thing since Sasuke Uchiha. At least, in her rankings. Frankly, I haven't spent enough time around him to really find him particularly interesting. And he rags on Naruto so much that I find myself in the middle of an annoying situation more often than not.

Her eyes drop to my hands, and she examines my fingers as though she's trying to unlock a puzzle. "So…can I ask about that jutsu you used on Zabuza? That was a ninjutsu that used wind, right?"

I raise an eyebrow, bemused by her question. "You're really curious, aren't you?"

Her cheeks turn red, and she looks down at her feet. "Well, we are teammates for this mission, so I thought that it would be a good idea to know more about you." She fidgets a little. "Plus, there's always the chance that you're going to be assigned to another mission with us, so it's best to know who you're working with ahead of time, right?"

She certainly makes an excellent point there. So I sigh a little. "True. Alright, I guess there's no harm in telling you about my ninjutsu style." I hold up one hand, spreading my fingers. "So, you know how there's five basic elements to ninjutsu, right?"

She nods. "Fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. That's not including other special types, like wood and ice."

"Exactly." I point to my first finger. "What you saw me use was the wind element. That's my primary element, the one I'm best at. That particular wind jutsu is usually meant for a battle where the odds are not in a ninja's favor. For example, if there are many enemies, against only one. Or if the opponent is powerful, like in Zabuza's case." I point to my second finger. "But, I'm not limited to a single element. I'm still working on it, but I can also use fire element ninjutsu."

Her eyes widen as she takes that in. "That's just like Sasuke."

I'd forgotten for a moment that Sasuke is capable of wielding fire element ninjutsu. But seeing as the few Uchiha that I knew personally were all able to do it, it makes sense. "Yeah, exactly. And Hiro can use the earth element, while Akito can use lightning and water. Akito's is the most dangerous combination, in my opinion. But for some reason, the old man thought that it would be a splendid idea to stick all three of us on the same team." Not to mention the not so little passenger that I'm carrying along. It's like he's deliberately trying to form a team with as much explosive power as possible. And we've already got Naruto for that.

Sakura continues to stare at me, like she thinks hat if she stares hard enough, she'll be able to unravel me all the way to my soul. If that's her plan, then she's going to have some serious trouble there. But I don't mind, because I've got my secrets locked up nice and tight.

And they're not coming out.

* * *

When dinner comes around again, Naruto and Sasuke are nowhere to be seen. The two of them must have been out practicing all day long, because there's no sign that they've been back yet.

Which, of course, means that the dinner table has been quiet so far, and Tsunami hasn't dropped any of the food because Naruto has startled her.

Sakura's eyes flick to the door as Tsunami sets a plate in front of her. "Now they're both late…I wouldn't have expected that from Sasuke."

I scoff. "Those two probably just went and turned it into a competition out there. You know how boys can be."

"Indeed." Kakashi looks to the door. "Looks like they're finally here."

I look over at the door just as it opens, and in walks Sasuke, supporting a rather beaten looking Naruto. "Took you guys long enough."

Tazuna raises an eyebrow. "What have you been up to? You look like something the cat dragged in."

Naruto looks up, grinning through the scratches, bruises, and dirt. "We both made it. We climbed all the way to the top."

Kakashi nods. "Good. Now, we move on. Starting tomorrow, you're both bodyguards for Tazuna."

The news puts a grin on Naruto's face in a flash, and he laughs loudly. "Alright!" And His celebrating goes and puts him off balance, and he takes Sasuke down with him.

"Ow…" He glares over at Naruto. "You are such a loser!"

I snicker slightly. "Well, now that you two are done pushing yourselves beyond what's reasonable, why don't you come and sit down. We've got food."

Naruto's eyes go wide, and he grins again. "Okay!" Leaving Sasuke behind, he scrambles over to the table just as Tsunami puts another plate of food down. "Thanks for the food!" He claps hi hands, picks up his chopsticks, and digs in immediately.

We all sit relatively quietly while eating, until Tazuna finishes his food, and breaks the silence. "In a few more days, the bridge will be finished, and we have you to thank for that."

Tsunami purses her lips. "You've all done great, but you've still got to be careful."

Tazuna nods. "I've been meaning to ask you this, but I haven't had the chance until now." His expression becomes grim. "Why did you stay and protect me, even after you found out I lied to bring you here?"

"Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage. But under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive." Kakashi almost sounds like a philosopher. Though, with everything that he's probably seen in his time as a ninja, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been pondering some rather deep questions. He looks up at all of us. "That was a quote from the First Hokage."

"That's…certainly something to think about…" From across the table, I can see the beginnings of tears in Inari's eyes. And that means that he must be thinking about something as painful as I am.

Because that quote reminds me so much of my father.

"But why…?" The tears in the little guy's eyes start dripping onto the table.

That catches Naruto's attention. "What'd you say?"

Inari slams his hands down on the table and stands up. "All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato's got a whole army! They'll beat you down and they'll destroy you! These cool things you all say, they don't mean anything! No matter what you do, the strong always win, and the weak always lose!"

I sigh and shake my head, then look over at Naruto, who is seething. "Just speak for yourself! It won't be like that for me, you got that!?"

"Why don't you be quiet!? Just looking at you makes me sick! You don't know anything about this country! You're just butting in! Always laughing and playing around, you don't know what it's like to suffer and be treated like dirt." The kid has now crossed the line. No, he hasn't crossed it, he's shattered it.

Naruto shakes just a little. "Listen to yourself whining and complaining like some sorry little victim. You can whimper all day for all I care!" Naruto finally looks up at the kid, rage in his eyes. "You're nothing but a coward!"

Sakura, her eyes trained on Naruto in a glare, puts her foot down. "Naruto! You went too far!" Naruto growls in frustration and stands up, walking away from the table. And Sakura seems to understand that she said something she shouldn't have. "Naruto…"

The table is now silent, except for the sound of Inari's sobs. So I get to my feet and stare right at the kid. "Don't make assumptions about other people's hardships. You have no idea the kinds of things that he's gone through." My fists clench and I try to keep my emotions under control. "You can't imagine the kind of pain he's been going through."

Kakashi coughs into his hand. "Ciara, that's enough."

I flash a glare at him, disliking his callous voice. "I know that you're a jounin, and that because of that, you are due respect. But would you butt out?" My glare manages to pin Kakashi to the spot, and he says nothing more. So I turn towards the stairs and sigh. "I'll go check on Naruto. He needs healing, and he's obviously going to want someone to rant to. So, who better than his best friend?"

I walk out without another word, and find Naruto lying down in his futon. I sit down next to him and ruffle his hair. He glances up at me sourly. "What is it?"

"It's alright to feel sad and angry when you see injustice, and to cry if you feel hurt. So if you want to say something, then don't be afraid to say it." Chakra flows into my hands, and I touch his cheek with one, and let the other rest on his stomach. "And I know that it's been rough for you. So don't let that kid's words get under your skin."

He turns over, lying flat on his back. "Nah, I'm not gonna cry. It doesn't help anyone in the end." His bright blue eyes find mine and he smiles weakly. "It's been rough for you too…"

"Yeah…" I know precisely what he's referring to, and it's hardly a pleasant memory. "Anyway, let's get some sleep. Healing takes a lot out of me."

He nods, opening up his futon and getting out of bed. I know this drill, so I turn around and reach for my bag. I strip off my clothes, totally comfortable with Naruto being in the room, seeing as he's turned away from me, doing the exact same thing. Then, I switch my day clothes out for my pajamas, before pulling my futon over to Naruto's, and snuggling into it, lying down on my left side.

Naruto joins me, slipping into his futon and lying on his right side, facing me. He smiles a soft and goofy grin for me, because he knows that it makes me feel better. "It's been a while since we've slept like this, huh?"

"Yeah, it has." The two of us used to pull sleepovers all the time. But we haven't done it since before graduation. And it makes me feel good to know that we can go right back to the childhood fun of sleeping next to each other, laughing, joking, and staying up all night to tell each other stories.

 _Maybe suffering isn't the only thing we've done in our short lives…_


	14. A Hero's Entrance

**Alright, so including this chapter, there are only four left for this arc. And just as a warning, though I don't usually like doing flashbacks, there's going to be several of them coming up now and again, mostly because I don't want to give away all of the details before the time is right. I'll give some context and foreshadowing ahead of time, but I do like to play some mind games. They're just so much fun.**

 **By the way, this chapter got finished much faster than I thought it would, and at this rate, I might be able to get a couple more chapters off by the end of the day. I've finally gotten my fast rhythm back!**

* * *

"Ah! Why didn't somebody wake me up!?" Naruto's voice echoes through the room like a screeching sea bird. And worst of all, it's right next to my ear.

I groan a little. "Naruto…shut up…" I'm not a morning person, never have been, and never will be. If I had my way, I would wake up at noon every day, then stay up most of the night.

"No way! They forgot to wake us up!" He shoots up out of bed and goes crashing downstairs.

On that note, I uncover my head and glare out the window. And he's right. For some reason, the sun is way higher in the sky than it should be. At least, if the others had planned to wake us up on time. _I can't believe it…they went and left without us…_ I can understand leaving Naruto behind, especially after being exhausted from all the training he's been doing, but I can't imagine why they would leave me behind as well.

Naruto comes running back upstairs, growling in frustration. "They ditched us! They totally ditched us!"

Groaning again, I shove my pillow over my head. "If they ditched us, then let's just take the day off…" After all the healing I snuck off to do, as well as healing Naruto up, I've taxed myself a little further than I should have. I've got a bleeding heart and I know it. But I'm still not gonna change it.

But Naruto has other plans, because he rips my blanket off my head, tosses my pillow against the opposite wall, and dumps my clothes on me. "Come on, get dressed! We have to go!"

"Fine…" I know very well that when he's like this, there's nothing that can stop him. He'll just whine and nag until I give in, so there's no point in trying to argue with him.

Once he's turned around, I toss off my pajamas and throw on my day clothes, before braiding my headband back into my hair. Naruto peers at me, frowning. "Hey, why do you wear your headband like that? It's supposed to go on your forehead, ya know."

I frown a little, then glance at the edge of the blue headband braided into my thick brown hair. "I know…it's just that I feel like I would start to look intimidating with it on my forehead instead."

"What?" Naruto tilts his head and frowns. "What kind of reason is that?" He reaches for my hair and pulls out my braid. "Come on, now, put it on your forehead!"

I'm not entirely sure why he's so insistent about this, but I might as well indulge him. If it really looks bad, I can always just put it back in my hair instead. Pushing my hair aside in the front, I loop my headband under my bangs and the locks of hair that fall in front of my shoulders, fastening the ends of the headband around the back of my head, over my hair. It's about as securely fastened as I can make it, and it feels a little weird, but bearable.

Naruto grins at me. "Whoa! That looks way better!"

"Really?" I had my doubts, but Naruto isn't a very good liar. And that's around other people. He never lies to me.

"Yeah!" His beaming smile reassures me, just like always. And once I'm ready to go Naruto grabs my hand and drags me downstairs. "See ya!" Naruto waves to Tsunami as he drags me right out the door.

The two of us take off into the trees, and I watch carefully ahead for anything out of the ordinary. "So, did Kakashi-Sensei leave a message or a reason for leaving us behind?"

Naruto nods. "Yeah, Inari's mom told me that Kakashi-Sensei ditched us so that we could sleep!" Then he glances back at me. "Is it true? Does that medical ninjutsu of yours really take up that much chakra?"

I grit my teeth. Dammit, Kakashi must have said something. "It's alright, Naruto, I'm fine. Yes, healing takes up a lot of chakra. But I recover quickly, so there's no reason to try and leave me behind." I deliberately leave out the part about my passenger, since I don't think that I'm quite ready to share that with Naruto yet. Hell, I'm not really ready to share that with anyone yet.

As we leap through the trees, it becomes obvious that Naruto's heavy training has paid off. He picks up the pace a little, his eyes flicking around, as though searching for something. The boy who always seems like a total idiot is now alert and focused. I can almost see the adrenaline pounding through his veins.

Then, his eyes focus in on something down on the ground. "Whoa, hey, whats that!?"

I glance down, and notice that he's staring at a dead animal. "I don't know…let's check it out."

With a silent agreement, the two of us drop from the trees, landing next to th bloodied carcass. Naruto turns the boar over with his foot, his eyes narrowed. "Hey, Ciara, do you know what made these cuts?"

I frown, crouching down to examine the deep wounds. "I'd say a katana. But I don't know why anyone would randomly slice up a boar with a katana." I glance up, and there are similar marks on the surrounding trees. "Those marks were made by the same weapon."

His gaze hardens, the gears in his brain working, now that the cobwebs are gone. "They…lead back towards the house."

My eyes widen as I realize that he's right. "Could it be…did Gato send thugs to take out Tazuna's family!?"

"That's gotta be it!" Naruto takes off, heading back towards the house with me hot on his heels. He grits his teeth and picks up the pace. "I really hope we're not too late."

"Me too." I race him through the trees just like we used to race through the streets at home when we were younger. Our usual races tended to be a thrill. This one is more the heart-stopping, panic-inducing type.

Naruto growls low, before putting his hands together. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two clones appear next to him, jumping along with us in the trees. Then, the two of them make hand signs of their own. "Transform!"

Just like that, the two of them transform themselves into shuriken, and Naruto snatches them out of mid-air. I watch as he puts them into his shuriken holster, and it clicks together in my brain. "So, you're going to use the same trick that you and Sasuke pulled on Zabuza?"

"Yep!" He grins, eager to get to our destination quickly. "Those guys won't know what hit em!"

I love his enthusiasm and optimism so much, but as the house comes into sight, and we drop out of the trees and race across the wooden docks, we see where the commotion is. And what a commotion it is. Luckily, the thugs are making no effort to conceal their movements, otherwise we might have headed into the house first, and missed them completely.

As we get closer, it's apparent that the thugs are a couple of swordsman. And they have an unconscious Tsunami at their feet. But most alarmingly, is the fact that Inari is charging towards them, obviously bent on saving his mother. There's no way that the kid would stand a chance against armed men. We have to step in and stop them. After all, it would displease our client if his family were to be murdered while in the crossfire.

I hiss quietly at Naruto. "You grab the kid, I'll get his mom. Alright?"

He nods wordlessly, and in a flash, the two of us spring into action. Naruto starts making hand signs, so I focus chakra straight into my feet, speeding up so much that I'm nearly invisible to the naked eye. And I'm so fast that I dodge both swinging swords, before scooping up Tsunami, and landing back over near Naruto with her, while he uses a substitution to replace Inari with a log.

The log, taking the two sword strikes that were meant for Inari, is cut into three pieces, confusing the two swordsmen.

"A substitution jutsu!?"

"The woman, she's gone!"

Nest to me, Naruto grins. "Sorry we're a little late." He puts Inari on the ground, while I get to work checking up on his mother.

"Huh? Who're they?"

Naruto laughs. "You know, heroes usually show up at the last minute."

Inari comes around, his eyes wide. "Naruto, it's you!" Then his eyes focus on me "Ciara? You're here too?"

Naruto grins at the kid. "Who else would it be?" Then he pats the kid on the head. "Inari, you did great. When you charged, they forgot about your mom for a minute. That gave Ciara a chance to grab her, and I used a cool jutsu to get you away from them."

Inari's eyes drop to his mother, so I smile. "Don't worry, she's going to be fine. I'll make sure to take really good care of her.

He nods, then looks up at Naruto. "Hey, Naruto, how did you know these samurai guys were coming here?"

"Uh…in the forest, we found a boar that had been attacked, and the trees were all cut up too, like someone had been practicing with a sword or something. Ciara said that the cut marks were from a katana, so that proved my theory." He dives right into his earlier observations of the environment. "The cuts led back towards the house, so we followed them here."

Inari's eyes widen a little more. "That was really smart." I realize that it's not common for Naruto to analyze things like that, but on occasion, it happens. And when it does happen, I know very well to go along with what Naruto's instincts are telling him.

"Blah, blah." The taller, tanned one with the eye patch glares at us. "It's a couple of those puny ninja brats Tazuna hired."

The other one readies his sword. "Get'em."

"Yeah!"

As the two swordsmen charge toward us, Inari panics. "They're coming!"

Naruto grins at me slyly. "Sit tight and let me handle things, okay?" He takes those two shuriken out of his holster, and I immediately know where he's going with this. So I just nod and watch as he chucks them at the two swordsmen.

The two men deflect the shuriken, not knowing that they've made a fatal mistake. And the shorter one scoffs. "Try something else!"

"I did." Naruto turns around and grins at them.

"I want him, he's mine!"

 _…Not even close…_ I sigh and shake my head. _Numbskulls…you should never underestimate a determined ninja._

Behind them, the two shuriken turn back into shadow clones, and both swordsmen get a kick straight to the noggins. Their role fulfilled, the clones disappear in puffs of smoke. And on the ground, no longer consciously moving, are the two arrogant swordsmen who thought that they could measure up to a ninja. Frankly, I'm surprised that they didn't see the trick coming, after all, subterfuge, ambush, and diversion are a ninja's basic tools.

Inari's jaw drops. "Whoa! You did it!"

Naruto laughs, then holds out his fist to Inari. "Yeah! Believe it!"

Inari blinks, then a huge, sincere grin covers his face, stretching from ear to ear. "That was so excellent! Like a real ninja!"

Naruto laughs happily. "You twerp, I am a real ninja. That's what I've been telling you!" With that, the two of them burst into fits of laughter, and I can;t help but smile at their silly antics.

Tsunami checks out, she just needs a little while to wake up. Fortunately, it looks like whichever of the two swordsmen knocked her out, knew what he was doing. There's no serious damage to her, which means that she must have been taken as a hostage. Now, that plan has been thwarted.

While I busy myself with tying up the two obnoxious swordsmen, Naruto sneezes like a cat. I glance back and raise an eyebrow. "Nice sneeze." Actually, it was rather cute, but from past experience, I know that Naruto hates it when I call his sneezes cute. So I save those comments for special occasions.

Naruto's nose twitches, and Inari laughs. "They say when you sneeze, it's cause somebody's talkin' about you somewhere."

"You don't believe that, do you?" Naruto shakes his head. "Hey, by the way, sorry about yesterday. Calling you a coward was pretty mean, I guess. Anyway, it's not true, ya know." He rubs Inari's hair affectionately. "Cause you are really brave."

Rather than reassuring Inari, that comment makes him start crying and sobbing. He raises his hands to his eyes and cries in frustration. "Darn it! I promised myself…I wouldn't cry anymore! You're gonna make fun of me again, and call me a baby, but I can't stop!"

"What are ya talkin' about?" Naruto keeps his voice light and cheerful. "You're happy. What's wrong with that? When you're happy, it's okay to cry. Really, it is." Naruto laughs, a sweet little tint of red coloring his cheeks.

"Naruto…" Inari's tear, far from stopping, start coming out even harder, though his sobbing has stopped.

With a chuckle, Naruto turns towards the bridge. "Okay, I can leave you in charge of things now, right?"

"Yeah." Inari looks up to Naruto, his face shining with determination.

"Good, then I'm going over to the bridge!" Naruto grins at me. "You coming?"

"Of course I am." I check the knots around the swordsmen one last time, then give them each a good chakra-powered kick in the crotch with good measure. _Those scumbags will be feeling that when they wake up, I promise._

As Naruto takes off, and I go about catching up to him, he waves back at Inari. "It's not easy, being a hero! It's tough, believe it!"

"Believe it!" Inari punches his fist into the air, which is quite a little sendoff from the boy who only a few days ago, hated us like a pack of pests.

Naruto and I take off for the bridge. Knowing our luck so far, Zabuza has probably already launched an attack on our group. And there's no way that we're just going to sit around while the others are in trouble.

My silly best friend keeps on grinning, turning to me as we approach the bridge. "Feel like showing up with a bang?"

I sweatdrop a little. "Define a bang."

He holds up a smoke bomb, and I think I can see what he's getting at. "Come on, a nice, loud entrance. That should be enough to distract everyone, right?"

A harsh laugh rips itself from my throat. "Oh, it'll distract them all right. But you had better be ready for a serious fight, because there's no way that drawing that much attention to ourselves is going to end well."

He nods. "Well, the hero always has to arrive at just the right moment, and with a nice, flashy entrance, right?"

"Right…" I have no idea where he gets these notions from, but at this point, I'm in no mood to argue about it. I've spent too many years trying to convince Naruto not to do half the things he does, and he rarely listens. So, I might as well just go along with it for now. "So, if you're the hero, what does that make me?"

He frowns slightly, before his grin gets even wider. "My sidekick!"

The urge to throttle him for his stupidity has never been greater. But, for the sake of my sanity, and his life, I hold back. "Alright, then I'll hang back and make sure that Tazuna and Sakura are okay. Chances are that Sasuke and Kakashi-Sensei are the ones in battle, leaving Sakura to protect Tazuna all on her own."

"Yeah, that's a good plan!" He picks up the pace as the bridge comes into sight. "Now, what are we waiting for, let's get this show on the road!"

"Right!" I pick up the pace as well, reaching into my shuriken holster and pulling out one freshly sharpened death star. As we approach, I notice a bunch of what look like mirrors. Strange… Heat builds behind my eyes as my vision sharpens, zooming in on the battle. _Suzaku…?_

 _Yes chick?_

 _Are you the one doing this?_

 _Yes, chick._

 _I see._ And literally, I do see. Because right in the middle of those icy mirrors is Sasuke, and he's being attacked by that masked ninja from before. _So, that tracker really is working with Zabuza, figures. I guess that really does explain everything._ I aim carefully with my shuriken, before hurling it through the air, letting it strike its target dead on.

It slices right across that ninja's mask, knocking him away from the mirrors.

Naruto laughs eagerly. "Okay, it's my turn now!" He raises the smoke bomb as we get closer, and hurls the tiny grenade at the ground, creating a pillar of smoke. And it's into the smoke we go.

There's obvious confusion around us, but it hardly matters now. We've made our entrance, and now, it's time to deal with the consequences. _I just hope that we aren't about to get ourselves killed…_

As the smoke dissipates, Naruto chuckles and looks around at everyone, with me at his back. "Naruto Uzumaki is here! Yeah! Believe it!"

 _Well, we have certainly made our entrance._


	15. Power Released

**Three chapters left. Oh, and for those who catch the play on words, keep in mind that culturally, it's an eastern set-up. Therefore, I'm thinking more about Shintoism than something like Christianity.**

 **Alright, so I haven't gotten the next few chapters done as quickly as I was hoping. But, as usual, the chapters heavy in fighting tend to be the longest, so here's a nice, long chapter for you. It was hard to write thanks to all the distracting airplanes flying overhead lately. There was an airshow, since it's July, and that means that the annual airshow was in town. Though since I'm not a fan of airplanes, all it did was annoy the heck out of me.**

* * *

Making an entrance is putting what we've just pulled pretty mildly. And We've definitely gotten the attention of the entire battlefield.

"Hah, now that we're here, everything'll be alright!" Naruto is definitely doing his very best to cause nothing short of the most showy distraction ever used by a ninja.

However, Sakura seems more than happy to see us. "Naruto! Ciara!"

Naruto turns to Zabuza. "You know how in stories, the hero usually shows up at the last minute and kicks butt? Well that's what I'm gonna do right now! Believe it!"

I nudge him in the back with my elbow. "I'm going, all right?"

He nods. "Yeah, I got things here. If I need back-up, I'll scream for ya." It's rather sad that he's gotten so used to saying that. Whenever he gets himself in over his head, I always hear the tell-tale shriek from the other side of the village, signaling me to either help, or run for the hills so that I don't get dragged into one of his messes.

And while that doesn't particularly reassure me, it's probably the best I'll get in these circumstances. So, I focus chakra into my feet, crouch down, and launch myself high into the air, flipping right over all of their heads, and landing right in front of Sakura and Tazuna. My eyes flick over the scene, taking in every detail of what lies before me.

First, there's Sakura and Tazuna behind me, and Sakura is in a defensive and protective stance. Then, there's Kakashi, who is the one closest to Zabuza. The two of them must have planned to go at it before me and Naruto appeared. Naruto, of course, is glaring right at the masked ninja, ready to throw down right now. And last is Sasuke, who looks quite injured, lying down in the middle of the circle of ice mirrors.

 _Ice, huh…must be some kind of Kekkai Genkai…_ Because of how my clan kind of ended up collecting Kekkai Genkai, I know something about how they work. But no one who married into the clan ever brought an ice element in with them, so I've never had the chance to see it first-hand. I glance at Sasuke and try to keep from frowning. _If you have the ability to use a Sharingan like Uncle Shi-Shi, then you'd better get it out quickly._

Zabuza seems displeased to see us, Kakashi looks like he thinks that revealing ourselves was a bad idea, and Sasuke just looks at us like we're idiots. But with a plan of my own in mind, just in case everything goes south, I'm not too worried about looking like an idiot.

"Alright, you're history!" Naruto puts his hands together once more. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Sensing danger, or at least some kind of threat, Zabuza throws a handful of shuriken at Naruto, obviously planning to take him out before he can hurt the masked ninja.

"No!" Naruto, move!" Kakashi yells out the order, only for it to be rendered pointless by none other than the masked ninja himself.

Sakura looks on in awe. "It didn't hit him."

"Their weapons canceled each other out. Amazing…now that's what I call lucky, I think." Tazuna is wrong about that, it was definitely not luck or coincidence.

"No…that's not luck. That was on purpose. And I think I know why." I shrink back into a more defensive stance. "That masked ninja wants to fight Naruto himself. He doesn't want Zabuza interfering. At least, that's what it looks like to me." This guy is either sadistic, or competitive. And gods forbid that he be both.

Sakura's hysteria evolves into screeching. "What are you doing, Naruto!? Are you crazy!?" Then she turns to me. "And how could you just go along with it!?"

I don't dignify her with a response, especially when Kakashi turns his eye on us. "This is a battle, not a talent show, don't let your opponent see your jutsu! A shinobi's art is deception, always keep the enemy guessing. Even when using a single jutsu, one must distract their opponent's attention, catch them off balance, and outmaneuver them. You just turn yourself into a human target when you enter a battle like that."

Naruto freaks out. "Ah! I'm sorry! I was just trying to rescue everybody!" _Funny…considering that making an entrance like that was your plan. Are you just trying to make them think that you're more of an idiot than you really are?_

I glance back at Sakura. "So, anything I should know now that I'm here?"

"Uh, yeah." She points to the masked ninja. "I think that Zabuza called that ninja Haku, or something…"

"Haku, huh?" My eyes trail towards the masked ninja, Haku, and I frown. "Well, then this Haku is going to be a serious pain in the ass. Maybe as much of a pain as Zabuza."

Zabuza's feathers have obviously been ruffled. "Haku, what are you doing?"

Haku gets to his feet, and even through the mask, I can see that he's focused on Naruto. "Zabuza, this boy…let me fight him my own way. Please."

"Bring it on!" Naruto is more than ready to fight, he's been excited to take on Haku ever since we first saw him. Not that he would admit it, of course. The tension here is so thick that, forget a knife, you'd need Zabuza's sword to cut through it.

Zabuza sighs. "So you want me to leave this to you, is that it, Haku?" There's no response from his silent companion. "As usual, you're too soft."

"I'm warning you, one way or another, I'm gonna rip off that mask and take you apart!" Naruto directs his challenge to Haku, obviously expecting to get the fight he wants immediately. _He's so impatient…_

Kakashi twitches, so Zabuza gets between him and Naruto. "Don't even think about it. You know the score, Kakashi. You go after Haku, I go after the bridge-builder."

I catch Kakashi's eye, so I slip a couple of kunai into my hands, holding them out in front of me in a defensive position. _Don't worry about me, Kakashi, focus on taking out Zabuza…_

Then, my eyes drift to Naruto, where he's just about to start throwing a tantrum. "That mask…and your bogus story, you were with Zabuza all along!" It's about time he put two and two together. "You think you can get away with a stunt like that!?"

Haku bows his head a little. "I'm sorry." His tone makes my ears twitch. "But, as your sensei said, deceiving your opponent, catching them off-guard, that is the art of the shinobi. Please don't take it personally."

A movement catches my eye, and I turn to see Sasuke hurling a kunai out of the ring of mirrors. It flies right at Haku's head, and looks like it'll hit its target. That is, until Haku leans a couple of inches back, making the kunai miss completely. _Probably should have seen that coming…_

Naruto turns, only now remembering that Sasuke is trapped. But Haku is still very much aware of his presence. "I haven't forgotten about you, not for an instant." He turns to Sasuke. "Some warriors accept defeat gracefully, they know when they are beaten. Others, do not. So be it, let us finish our battle then, to the death!"

"Hey! Where are you going!?" Naruto isn't one to take kindly to being ignored. He never has, hence all of the stupid pranks he pulls.

Haku pauses. "It's alright, Naruto. We'll have our fight next." Then, he slips back into one of the mirrors, like he's been sucked into another dimension.

Narrowing my eyes, I watch as Haku starts moving in the mirrors. Though it's hard to tell if it's a reflection I'm looking at, or really him. He's got needles, just like the ones he used on Zabuza. _Is he going to try and kill Sasuke with those? That's going to be hard, even with pinpoint accuracy. The number you'd need to hit him with is huge._

Then, the attack begins. "Sasuke!" Naruto and Sakura look on in horror as barrages of needles slice through Sasuke's skin.

Kakashi's hand twitches. "Sasuke, Naruto, think! You need to attack from the outside and the inside at the same time!"

That would be a great plan, in theory. However, Naruto being who he is, doesn't want to just sit around and miss out on all the fun. So he sneaks inside the ring of ice mirrors, and almost completely disappears from sight.

I sigh and my forehead meets my palm. "Naruto…"

"Hey, I snuck in here to save you!" Naruto sounds so proud of himself. "Pretty cool move, huh, Sasuke?"

Kakashi groans. "Naruto…you sneak up on your enemy, not your ally."

"You are a complete loser! You're a shinobi! Think carefully before you move!" Sasuke chews Naruto out like there's no tomorrow.

Which, of course, offends Naruto, because he doesn't see anything that he might have done wrong. "What the heck's your problem!? You should thank me for coming in here to help you!" _Hero complex…definitely a hero complex…_

"Naruto…if we're both inside here-" Sasuke growls in frustration. "Forget it! I've had it with your mistakes!"

"And I've had it with your attitude! Believe it!" Sasuke may have good reason to chew Naruto out for this mistake, but I'm with Naruto on the attitude bit. Sasuke is being an absolute dick right now.

"That's it, I'm gonna destroy these mirrors right now!" Sasuke gets to his feet, his hands moving in a blur. "Fire Style-"

Naruto panics. "Hey, what attack are you using!?"

"These mirrors are made of ice, so how do you destroy ice? Figure it out." There's a flash of chakra, and an expanding flame. "Fireball Jutsu!"

I can clearly see the flames from here, but I see not melting or shattering of mirrors. So either all of the damage is on the inside, or Sasuke's fire has done nothing at all. And I certainly hope that it's not the latter.

"That didn't do anything at all!" Naruto's voice crushes the small hope I had that Sasuke might actually be able to pull that off. _I wonder if hitting it with my wind style would do anything…? Or would it just destroy the mirrors and kill them in the process?_

My frustration hits an all-time high, since I can't just go running off to help those two. I have to stay here and make sure that nothing happens to Sakura and Tazuna. Because, while the girl might be smart, Sakura isn't going to be much use in an actual battle. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen her do more than idly draw a kunai.

Then, there's a brilliant flash of light, and I hear the boys scream. "Dammit!" I grit my teeth, forcing myself not to act on my instincts and charge in there to rescue them.

A warmth ebbs and flows through my body, comforting me. _Have faith in them… They will pull through this. But you must stay here and wait. They are both injured, and will need you to heal them once they are free. For that, you must not put yourself needlessly in danger, chick._

"Where is he!?" Naruto's voice echoes out of the misty smoke. "Where's the needle attack coming at us from? Are they clones? We've gotta find the real one! Which one is it!?"

Biting my lip, I feel a hand touch my shoulder, and I look back at a pair of very worried light green eyes. "Can you see anything in there?"

Shame and dissatisfaction boil inside me at her words. "A bit, but the mirrors keep bouncing reflections off each other, so it's hard to get a clear picture, especially through the mist." I squint into the circle, only to shake my head. "I could go and check on them, but that would mean leaving the two of you wide open. And I know that Kakashi-Sensei would yell at me for doing that." I look back at her and stare straight into her eyes. "Don't worry, those two are a lot tougher than they seem. They can handle this."

She nods, her eyes widening. "Your eyes…there's…something wrong with your eyes?"

"Huh?" I blink, not really understanding what she means. "What are you talking about? What's wrong with my eyes?"

She points to my left eye, and then my right. "Well, usually, your eyes are dark green, like a couple of jewels. But now, they're…orange, with a bunch of gold in the middle, and red on the outer edge. They…almost look like rings of exploding fire. Gold, to orange, to red."

"Rings of fire…?" My attention is distracted for a moment, as Naruto's chakra surges, and I notice that there are several more of them now. _Shadow clones…_ I shake my head. _No, I need to focus on Sakura. Naruto can handle things in there for now._ I have no idea what my eyes look like right now, but telling a half-truth is better than telling a lie or letting it go. "Well, I'm concentrating chakra behind my eyes so that I can see better. But I didn't know that I was making them change color as well. Sorry if I scared you."

She shakes her head. "I'm not scared…it's just…"

"You've never seen anything like it before?" Honestly, I can't blame her. After all, I doubt that many people alive right now have seen someone with eyes like she just described.

I move the two of them back a little, not trusting Naruto and Sasuke to keep this battle calm and short enough to avoid putting others in danger. The two are volatile, to say the least. And while I know that they have no intention of hurting any of us, they might not have much control over that in the immediate future.

Kakashi, who has been observing the battle as closely as I have, panics. "Ah! I knew it! It's a bloodline trait, Kekkai Genkai."

Sakura looks confused. "Kekkai Genkai? What is it?

"It's like my Sharingan." He points to his covered eye. "You can't learn it, it has to be in your blood, in your genetic code, passed down from generation to generation within a single clan." His eyes flick to me. "Or in the descendants of a clan, even if they're separated or scattered."

My jaw locks uncomfortably. He knows…

"But that means…" The truth dawns on Sakura.

"Yes, even I can't copy that jutsu. There's no way to destroy it." Kakashi glares at Haku through the mirrors. "No way to stop it."

Growing loud again, Naruto's voice echoes in the din. "I couldn't break through. So what!? He's not gonna stop me! I'm not giving up, and I'm not gonna lose here! Cause I have a dream, and no one's gonna take it away from me." My heart pounds anxiously, because I know very well what his dream is. "Someday, I'll be respected in my village, that's my dream! To be the greatest Hokage!"

Haku's voice echoes and rasps in the cold air. "It was not my desire to be a shinobi. It's painful. I don't want to kill you, but if you advance, I will have no choice. I will kill the kindness in my own heart, and fully embrace the shinobi way. And there will be no mercy, no turning back. This bridge will be the battlefield where our dreams collide. Now, I must fight for my dream, just as you fight for yours. Please do not blame me. I fight for someone who is precious to me, I live for him, and I face death for him, so that his dream may become reality." Judging by how he is so attached to Zabuza, it makes me wonder what Zabuza's dream is. "That is my dream. And for the sake of that dream, if I must, I will act as a shinobi and take your lives."

It was quite a speech that came out of Haku's mouth. And I suppose that in his mind, it justifies everything that he's done. But as for me, I prefer dreams that do good for people, instead of hurting them. Naruto's dream is like that, he wants respect and acceptance. And he wants to be adored by more people than just me.

Sakura finds her courage, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Sasuke! Naruto! Take this guy out, you can do it!"

"Don't, Sakura." Kakashi shoots her a warning glance. "Don't push them. Even if they somehow found a way to overcome the mirror jutsu, they still couldn't defeat this ninja."

That startles Sakura. "How can you be so sure?

Zabuza laughs, and Kakashi seems to almost growl. "They have the desire to win, they don't have the instinct to kill. That boy is a whole other breed, he lives for pain, thrives on it." That sends a few shivers down my spine.

I'm not fond of needlessly inflicting pain. Between the emotional pain that I help Naruto deal with, and memories of my own traumas, it's not a feeling that I would wish on anyone else, let alone inflict it on them. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to defend someone I care about, if the situation called for it.

"Exactly. Your village has become complacent. Your trainees never learn the most important lesson of all." Zabuza's eyes glint terribly in the mist. "To kill the feelings in their own hearts. To crush an opponent mercilessly. To destroy with no emotion or regret." His chakra starts pulsing, coming off his body in waves.

"But then-" Sakura shivers, turning to Kakashi. "Sensei, what are we gonna do? Please tell us!"

I grit my teeth, my voice low. "Sakura, we're in something of a stalemate right now. If Kakashi goes to save Naruto and Sasuke, he'll definitely be able to get them out of there. But that'll leave you and me to deal with Zabuza, and unlike me, you're not equipped for intense battle. Which means…" _He's only got one viable option right now._

He knows it too, and he reaches up to his headband, pulling at it, intending to expose his Sharingan. Zabuza growls in amusement. "Sharingan? You're no fun, Kakashi. You're using the same old trick." He lunges at Kakashi, drawing out an oddly shaped kunai and stabbing it into Kakashi's hand.

"Sensei, no!" Sakura screams as she sees blood drip to the ground.

Kakashi, on the other hand, is unfazed. "If it's just an old trick, why did you stop me?"

Zabuza chuckles. "Let your opponent see your jutsu too many times, and he'll find a way to use it against you." He really likes to talk. In that respect, he's almost as bad as Naruto when it comes to chatting during a battle. It almost makes me wish that he were as silent as his kills.

"Then count yourself lucky. You're the only man alive who's seen my Sharingan twice. Show's over, there won't be a third time." There's a deadly edge to Kakashi's voice now. He's already planned his kill.

Zabuza is hardly worried. "Even if you did defeat me, you would have no chance against Haku." He seems awfully confident about that. "When I found him, he was just a street kid. But I trained him in the most advanced ninja techniques. Everything I know." That explains his skill level. "Plus, he had special abilities that he refined on his own. The boy developed quickly. Soon, he could face the most powerful enemy outnumbered, in total darkness, it didn't matter. He could strike with perfect accuracy. He cared nothing for his own life, or the lives of others. He'd become a unique fighting machine, a shinobi." I can hear the pride in Zabuza's voice, no matter how twisted a sense of pride it may be. "In the end, his power surpassed even mine. His bloodline trait, the Kekkai Genkai, cannot be defeated by anyone. I created a tool that can destroy anything that stands in my way, unlike the useless punks who follow you around!"

A slight smile creeps onto my face. "Man…this guy sure likes to flap his gums. Maybe we should stick him and Naruto in a room together and see who cracks first." I'm almost seriously considering doing just that. I'd love to see the looks on their faces after an hour in confinement with each other.

A loud noise within the mirror prison calls my attention. And from the flurry of yells and excessive amount of movement, I'd wager a fair bit and say that Naruto is using those shadow clones of his again. _I've got to get him to teach me that one of these days. Regular clones are completely useless…_

A minute later, I hear Naruto crash to the ground. "How is he doing that!?" Then, there's the frustrated growl that I know so well. "One more time."

There's something serious going on in there, but Zabuza doesn't seem very worried. "You think those genin punks together can beat Haku? He's the ultimate battle tool of destruction."

"Are you done bragging? You're putting me to sleep." Kakashi's impatience bleeds into his tone. Along with…resentment, I think. "Let's finish this now." He uncovers his Sharingan, that secret weapon that had him out of commission for almost a whole week.

"Fine, but there's one more thing you should know. A little more bragging, as you say." Zabuza puts away his kunai, and I tense a little. "Did you really think our last battle was just win or lose? That I took your attacks like some rank genin? Haku was there, hiding, watching every move you made, and studying your Sharingan. Haku can see a jutsu once, and immediately devise a lethal counterattack. It's one of his gifts." That's not good. "I've been waiting to see the look on your face when you realize your Sharingan has become worthless. You once said 'the same jutsu won't work on me twice'. Well, now I'm telling you that." He raises a hand slowly. "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

And just like that, the mist thickens further, blocking out nearly all of my vision. Damn it!

Sakura starts to disappear in the mist "Sensei?"

Kakashi replies quickly. "Sakura, stay with Ciara and Tazuna. Ciara, I'm trusting you to watch out for them, alright?"

"Yeah." I reach out for Sakura and tug her closer to Tazuna, backing them both up a little further from the battle. I back them up so far, that the sounds from the battle start to dim, becoming white noise in this white mist. _Damn it…of all the times to not have a wind style that could blow this mist away…_ That's my fault, of course. I'd focused on upping my battle capability, that I'd focused on more destructive jutsu, rather than trying to conjure myself a hurricane.

 _Note to self, if we all survive this battle and get home, remember to learn a wind jutsu that turns into a hurricane… I need some jutsu that can alter the terrain in my favor._

I squint a little more, and heat rushes through me again. Let me help… It's Suzaku again, his voice echoes quietly through my head. And a moment later, my eyes start to burn, persuading me to shut them so that I can rub them better.

Sakura touches my shoulder. "Hey, Ciara, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." I grit my teeth a little. "My eyes just hurt a little, that's all." I'm a little worried that I might have strained them. That is, until the burning sensation dies down, and I open my eyes once more.

The world that I see is nothing like the world I'm used to seeing. Everything is blue and purple, with fuzzy orange and red forms scattered across my field of vision. It's almost like… _Thermal vision?_

 _Yes, chick. The mist is too thick for even my eyes. Therefore, I am allowing you to see the world in heat. Make good use of this._ His voice quickly fades into the back of my mind, leaving me alone with an exceptionally colorful view of the world.

Over in the ring of mirrors, I can see Haku flitting about, his heat signature much dimmer than Naruto and Sasuke's. Of course, as a wielder of an ice Kekkai Genkai, I suppose that it makes sense for him to have a lower body temperature than normal.

As the distant roars of battle grow louder, a flash of bright white light explodes in my vision, right where Naruto and Sasuke are. I curse quietly and block my eyes. _If I'm seeing in heat, then that must have been Sasuke… The only thing that could possibly register as that hot would be one of his fire jutsu. At least they seem to have a plan, though. At least…I sure hope they do._

Turning my eyes away from the blinding white light of Sasuke's fire, I watch Kakashi and Zabuza carefully, taking a moment to first identify which heat signature is which. Small flashes of green flit between the two. Weapons, probably. And then, of course, there are the black shapes, which I've determined are the ice mirrors surrounding the boys.

With Kakashi and Zabuza, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on. So either those two are having a silent staring contest with zero visibility, or they're chatting, again.

"Ciara, can you see anything?" Sakura fidgets behind me, her breathing a little erratic. "I can't see a thing through this mist."

I bite my lip, answering hesitantly. "It's…really hard. Visibility is basically zero. And I don't have any jutsu that can disperse this mist. I can just see their outlines as they run around, but…"

Suddenly, Zabuza's form moves, taking off into the air. And normally, that wouldn't be too much of a problem, since I'm sure that Kakashi knows how to deal with aerial attacks. The problem is that he's not headed for Kakashi. He's coming for us.

So, while he's still in the air, my hands flash together, and I inhale deeply. **_Fire Style: Meteor Shower!_** Instead of looking down from the sky and spitting a cluster of tiny, compressed fireballs, I'm on the ground, shooting them straight up. They come out in six rounds, each round containing five tiny meteorites.

Now, I pride myself on having pretty good aim. But Zabuza is a fast bugger, and because of the blinding white light of my fireballs against my thermal vision, there's no way to tell if any of them hit him or not. All I can do is hope that I got him.

But when a cool breeze swirls from behind me, I spin quickly, shoving my way past Tazuna, and flipping my to kunai into a position that is ready to block a slash from his sword. And judging by how huge that sword is, chances are good that he prefers to swing on a downward angle. And with my vision clearing from my earlier view of only white-hot fire, I can see his orange and red form clearly in front of me.

He draws his sword, raising it over his head. "Too late!" And he slashes it down towards me.

All it takes is the blink of an eye. I feel not pressure bearing down on my arms, and no pain, which means that the sword didn't connect. In fact, all I feel is a hand pushing me backwards. Then I hear a gasp of pain.

My thermal vision does me no favors in seeing what's actually going on, until I see small drips of orange falling to the ground from the orange and red form before me. And it's accompanied by Sakura's shrill scream. Kakashi is standing in front of me, with his blood dripping onto the cold ground.

Sakura gasps, taking in what she's seeing now that there's not enough mist between us and them to hide anything. "Kakashi-Sensei!"

"You were late, Kakashi." Zabuza's voice has a hint of a chuckle in it. "You let your concern for those little punks' safety cloud your mind, adding to the fog that already hinders your Sharingan, and it nearly cost this little one her life. Your eyes are sharp, Kakashi, but not sharp enough to read my moves, not anymore." He releases a rather demented laugh. "Come on, Kakashi, I want this to be fun. I want to enjoy myself as I exact my revenge. As for those brats, don't worry, they're at Haku's mercy. They're breathing their last breaths right now." He raises his sword once more. "Relax, you'll have time to weep out an apology for failing those brats when you see them in the next life." And like that, he backs away into the mist, becoming an increasingly fainter signature as his demented laughter surrounds us.

Kakashi breathes hard, so I slap my hands onto his back, focusing my chakra into him in order to stop the bleeding. But my eyes remains fixed on Zabuza's faint signature as he circles us. "Stay still for a bit, I'm staunching the bleeding." He nods quietly, his breathing starting to eve out a little. I'm doing what I can to decrease his pain as well, but until he's fully healed, there's going to be pain, no matter what I do.

Sakura's voice, still a little shrill from her earlier scream, shakes a bit. "He said Sasuke…will die…" Then she shakes herself and determination bleeds in. "No, I don't believe that! I have faith in him!" Then, she descends into incoherent babbling. Something about Haku and Sasuke, and Naruto as well.

While her faith is placed mainly in Sasuke, mine rests in Naruto. Sure, Sasuke has skills, but Naruto is the one that I would really be afraid of in a fight. After all, he's the type to keep a promise, which means that he's never going to run from this fight. And since that's the case, he's certainly going to keep attacking until he can no longer stand. And no one gives him enough credit for that, because it takes quite a lot to keep him down.

Mostly me, but no one knows about our secret little sparring sessions. And I'd very much like to keep it that way.

Kakashi breathes in and out deeply. "Exactly." Apparently he deciphered what Sakura was talking about. "I believe in their abilities. I have faith in them." That's good to hear. "Naruto, the Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja. And Sasuke, heir to one of the most powerful clans of the Hidden Leaf Village."

That grabs Zabuza's attention. "You mean…?

"Yes, his full name is Sasuke Uchiha. The unique powers of the Uchiha bloodline run through his veins. The Kekkai Genkai is his birthright." Kakashi glances back at me, examining me. _Yeah…he definitely knows…_

"Ah, I heard that one young ninja survived the tragedy of the Uchiha Clan." Then, Zabuza has the nerve to laugh. "The Hidden Leaf seems to have trouble keeping its clans safe, huh? Seems like that's the case no matter where you go."

My hands twitch on Kakashi's back. "That bastard…" It happened before the tragedy of Sasuke's clan, but the memories are still far too fresh for me. And Zabuza is clearly old enough to have heard something about my family disappearing. Though it's clear that it was meant as a general taunt. There's no way that anyone here but Kakashi knows about what happened in my past.

Kakashi speaks in a whisper. "Calm down… Don't let him rile you up, even by accident."

Thanksully, Zabuza seems blissfully unaware of our quiet conversation. "No wonder he advances so quickly. But, so does Haku, no one can match him. No one can stop his secret jutsu. Even the most skilled jounin fall before him. Just as you will fall before me! Right now!"

"Sakura, Ciara, stay with Tazuna!" Answering Zabuza's challenge, Kakashi takes off into the mist, leaving me and Sakura on guard duty.

My eyes travel towards the mirror prison, falling on three still figures, two of which are on the ground. Sasuke appears to still be standing, but not for long. He collapses, only to be caught by Naruto. And right there is when he stops moving.

And that is the last straw, apparently it is for Naruto as well. Because when Haku gets back on his feet, I feel powerful chakra emanating from Naruto. The chakra is clearly not his own, so it has to be the fox's chakra. And knowing what kind of power that is, I know that things are about to get really ugly, really fast.

I bit my lip and groan. "Dammit, Naruto…what the hell happened in there?"

Sakura gasps in surprise. "Wait, Naruto? What are you talking about!? Where is that chakra coming from!?"

There's no time to waste answering Sakura's questions. If NAruto is unleashing that kind of power now, then I need to get everyone as far away from him as possible. "Sakura, you get Tazuna far away from the battle. I'm going in to get Sasuke."

She stutters a little. "B-but what's going on?"

I crouch a little, chakra concentrated right to my toes. "Just trust me on this. I'm going to get Sasuke out of there, and then, we need to stay as far away from Naruto as possible, otherwise who knows what could happen…"

Before she can ask anything else, I take off towards the mirrors, the chakra becoming clearer as I get closer. My thermal vision dissipates as there is no longer a need for it. Besides, his chakra is already blinding enough.

I rush in to see Naruto surrounded by fiery orange chakra, a clear sign that the fox's chakra is leaking out. His wounds have healed themselves and he's racing around after Haku, completely enraged. So in order to save Sasuke, I focus chakra into my arms, pick him up, and sprint out of the ice mirror prison.

Looking down at him as I sprint back towards Sakura and Tazuna, the extent of the damage becomes apparent. There are needles sticking out of him, almost making him look even more like a porcupine than his spiky hair already does.

Normally, these kinds of injuries wouldn't be lethal, but there's so much blood coming out of him that if I don't treat him soon, he could very well bleed to death. I skid to a stop next to Sakura, and I sit Sasuke's unconscious body down gently, preventing any of the needles from sticking any further into his body.

Sakura gasps, her eyes full of tears. "Sasuke…"

I huff impatiently. "Sakura, I know that you care about him, but you're going to have to stay back and hold your emotions down. I can't do my work if you're stressing me out." Thankfully, that shuts her up, but she still hovers as I start pulling out the needles, and run my hands over the many deep puncture wounds. Naruto's chakra emissions are distracting enough, and I really don't need anyone else complicating matters.

The first set of needles to be successfully extracted are the ones in his back. The point of taking those out first are so that I can lay him on his back and not have to waste time and energy shifting him around and holding him up.

The next to go are the needles littering his chest. And judging by the pattern, he must have gotten hit with quite a number of individual attacks. Some places even look like the needles were yanked out, or fell out on their own. I press my fingers to each of those points, seeding up the cell replication and filling in the many holes in his skin and muscles. Thankfully, his organs have only been scratched, not punctured.

I hear a mirror shatter, then another, and finally the rest of them shatter in a rain of ice and snow as Haku is punched right out of the circle. _Naruto…I know that you're angry…but you have to remember to stay in control, at least a little. Don't destroy everything you're trying to protect._

My attention returns to Sasuke, and I do what I can to ignore the strangled yells coming from Naruto's throat as he and Haku move further away from us. I notice the slight swelling around Sasuke's eyes, similar to the swelling that was around Kakashi's left eye while he was unconscious. _Must be one of the effects of the Sharingan...maybe it takes time and exercise to make the swelling go away. Because I don't remember Shi-Shi's eyes swelling up whenhe showed me his..._

Tazuna looks down at me, his eyes wide. "Will he live?"

I nod. "His will to live is strong, and he hasn't crossed the threshold for losing blood. It's not going to be easy, but I can save him." And I intend to do exactly that.


	16. Haku and Zabuza

**Okay, so this chapter was a whole lot easier to write than the last one, plus I actually felt calm enough to sit down and write it for a few hours. It took several episodes to get through these two chapters, though, which slowed me down some.**

 **Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

A terrifying chorus of growling echoes through the mist, drawing my attention slightly away from my patient. And our client is on edge too. "That dreadful noise, what could it be?"

"I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to find out." Sakura is right there, and I just hope that it's something that Kakashi pulled, and not Zabuza or Haku. Because I'm pretty sure that I would know if it were Naruto growling like that.

In fact, surprisingly enough, Naruto's chakra has died down. Not to the point where it's non-existent, just that the fox's chakra has receded. And the bloodlust that once hung in the air is no longer present. Which is good, considering how heavy and stifling it felt.

The mist starts to clear, and Kakashi's form quickly becomes visible again as my thermal vision fades away. With no more need for it, I welcome the muting of colors into something that looks less like someone threw up a rainbow.

But as things become clearer to my sharp eyes, I see Kakashi holding lightning in his hand. I've never seen a jutsu like that, and judging by the look on his face, neither has Zabuza. Though I must admit that he looks rather comical with a bunch of dogs handing off every body part. One little one is even hanging off the ends of his headband.

The lightning intensifies, and Kakashi's voice grows louder. "Lightning Blade!" The lightning jumps around him, clearly visible. And then, his voice makes my ears twitch. It would seem that the mist was not only blocking my vision, but dampening sound waves as well. "I wont allow you to kill Tazuna. He's a brave man with a noble dream. The bridge he's building is the hope of this land and all its people. You're like a disease. By attacking one, you infect all. You don't care. That is not the way of the shinobi."

"You're right, I don't care!" Zabuza seems to be a lot more confident than he should be, considering that he's been pinned down in a rather vicious doggy pile. "It's useless little people and their petty little dreams. Why should they matter to me? I have a dream of my own."

"But in order to have a dream, you need to have a future." The underlying threat in Kakashi's words is obvious. And it's a little scary that he can say something like that with a perfectly straight face. At least, I think he's got a straight face, but it's hard to tell with that mask on. "You don't. Your future's all used up, Zabuza."

Kakashi readies his strike, and across the battlefield, further away, I can see Naruto charging at Haku, going for a death blow. And by now, the mist has cleared enough for Tazuna and Sakura to see something through it.

Tazuna grumbles a little. "At last, I think this blasted fog is lifting."

"Look, they're standing still, like they're squaring off." Sakura's eyes are trained on the two jounin.

"Yeah? I can't see a thing." And I would attribute that to Tazuna's old age and bad eyesight. I mean, the old man does wear glasses, after all.

Sakura observes the scene. "Which one of them's Kakashi-Sensei?"

"That one." I point to the smaller form. "Kakashi is the one right there." I keep forgetting that even without the thermal vision, my eyesight is still sharper than either of theirs.

Then, Kakashi starts his attack, and Sakura gasps. "Look, he's moving!"

And Kakashi isn't the only one booking it. Haku disappears from my field of vision, moving so fast that it's impossible to see him again until he reappears in front of Zabuza.

The impact of the clash blows away the rest of the mist, and the carnage becomes apparent. There's a mirror in front of Zabuza, and the one whose blood is spattered all over it is Haku's. He gave up his own life to shield Zabuza from Kakashi's fatal blow.

The dogs all disappear as Haku coughs. "Zabuza…"

Getting over his shock quickly, Zabuza glares at Kakashi. "So, my futures all used up, huh? Wrong again, Kakashi."

Naruto runs around, getting closer as he looks for Haku. "Where'd he go!?" Then he catches sight of us. "The fog's lifting!"

I glance over at the bloody end to one battle. "Naruto…"

He follows my line of sight, squinting a little. "Is that him?" Then he notices the blood soaking Haku's body. "What? I don't get it. What the heck's going on here?"

"Isn't that…the young man in the mask?" Tazuna quickly catches on to Haku's identity. I, of course, had no trouble knowing that it was the boy in the mask. After all, a mask can only hide so much.

"The boy…threw himself in front of my attack." This action has clearly rattled Kakashi. "He saved your worthless life, at the cost of his own."

Zabuza is not only completely unfazed by it, but he actually has the gall to laugh. "Well done, Haku."

"Kakashi-Sensei! Watch out!" Sakura can only utter a warning as she sees Zabuza draw his blade.

With Haku barely still alive, but holding Kakashi in place, Zabuza has a much easier target to hit. "I knew I'd found a treasure when I found you, boy. Not only giving me my life, but Kakashi's as well!" He slashes his sword down, aiming to take out Kakashi by slicing right through Haku's body.

Kakashi grabs Haku and jumps backwards, dodging the blade and keeping Haku in one piece. Then, he lays the boy on the ground as Haku's chest stops moving. Zabuza simply laughs. "Not bad for having a corpse in your arms."

Naruto is livid. "You'll pay for that!"

"No! Stay out of this, Naruto!" Kakashi's tone may be harsh, but he deals with Haku gently.

With Sasuke stable, I pump one last bit of healing chakra into his body, closing up most of his remaining cuts, before running over to Kakashi to check Haku. But the boy is already dead, and there's no way that I could resuscitate him, even if I had better training. The vessels connected to his heart are far too damaged, and his internal systems have been pretty fried. "He's gone…there's nothing I can do." Even if there was a way to help him, he's technically our enemy. It would be against the mission directives to help him, even if I could. So all I can do is close his eyes, and wipe the blood from his face to make it look like he's sleeping.

Kakashi growls. "This is my battle. Zabuza's mine."

Over by Sasuke, Sakura waves to Naruto. "Naruto? Naruto! Over here!"

Naruto's eyes start to water a little. "Sasuke…he…"

I roll my eyes and sigh. "He's over there." I point towards Sakura and Tazuna. "He's unconscious, but alive, I treated him as best I could." Then, I reach across Haku and put my hands on Kakashi's chest, pressing them against his now much shallower wound. "Speaking of treatment. Let me close that up…"

Kakashi sits still while I treat him, at least, for a few moments. Because behind me, Zabuza's snarl fills the air. "Kakashi, I'd stay focused if I were you. But first, let's get rid of that pesky little healer!"

Kakashi moves like lightning, pulling me down and nearly squishing me against Haku's body as he kicks over my head and slams his foot into Zabuza's chest. "Stay down and get out of the way. Sasuke and Naruto still need you."

I know what he's getting at, wanting me to get out of the way and out of danger, while using Naruto and Sasuke as an excuse to get me to listen. It's playing a little dirty, but he's got a point. I just wish that I'd had more time to work on him before he hopped right back into a fight. "Alright. But be careful."

Kakashi jumps over my head, so I make a break for it, grabbing Naruto as I head straight for Sakura, Tazuna, and Sasuke. In the meantime, Kakashi can go ahead and beat up on Zabuza all he likes. Even though I really should have had more time to heal him first. We're never going to get to leave if we're all stuck here recuperating for another two weeks.

As I sit down next to Sasuke, Naruto snaps out of his daze. "Is…he gonna be alright?"

"Yes, he'll be alright." I glance up at Sakura, who is looking at Sasuke's pale face with a very worried look, and what appears to be the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "And would you quit looking at him like that!? I swear, I've done everything I can for him, he's going to make it. So stop looking at him like someone killed your puppy!" It's rather unprofessional of me to lose my temper, but the way she goes from worried about Kakashi, to deathly afraid for Sasuke is ticking me off.

"I'll split you in half!" Zabuza's anger makes me spin around, only to see the man covered in blood, his left arm hanging uselessly by his side, and frustration plastered all over his face. He swings at Kakashi several times, only for his blade to fall uselessly against the ground. He must have used up a lot more power than he thought, because despite his earlier ease at wielding the giant blade one-handed, he's having a lot of trouble replicating that skill now.

Kakashi, having easily dodged the strike, reappears behind Zabuza, his hand at the assassin's neck. "Look at you, you're falling apart. I knew you didn't have what it takes for the long haul."

"What did you say?" Zabuza's pride has been gravely wounded.

"You have no idea what real strength is." Kakashi drives the proverbial knife in ever deeper.

"Well, well." An irritating new voice approaches, along with the tapping of a cane. The one it belongs to is a short man with bad hair, and a dark suit. "So this is how it turns out, huh?" I notice that he also has what appears to be a broken arm. I wonder who did that…

Ignoring him, Kakashi pulls out two kunai, twirls them around, and drives them at Zabuza. "Game over, you lose."

Zabuza isn't having any of that, regaining a little of his strength, just enough to swing his sword backwards, warding off Kakashi's strike. But it's too late, Kakashi's kunai have hit their mark, embedding themselves into Zabuza's right arm, rendering it just as useless as his left.

"Now, both of your arms are useless. What now? You can't even make hand signs." Kakashi's goal is obvious, he's taken away Zabuza's ability to use jutsu, rendering him rather disabled for any battle against a ninja.

But, before getting an answer from the assassin, Kakashi's attention falls on the man walking towards us, flanked by an army of armed thugs. "Did quite a job on you, didn't he, Zabuza? You look like yesterday's sashimi. I must say I'm disappointed."

My fingers twitch towards my kunai and shuriken case. Oh…this guy is just asking to have his head ripped off… Normally, I'm not quite so bloodthirsty. In fact, it's an emotion that I'm fairly unfamiliar with. But looking at this guy just makes me want to do something bad to him.

"Gato?" Zabuza identifies the ugly fart. "I don't understand, what is all this? Why are you here? And who are these thugs you've brought with you?"

Gato smirks. "Well, you see, there's been a slight change in plan. According to the new plan, you die right here on this bridge, Zabuza." _Well, that's a twist. I thought that this guy was the one who hired him in the first place._

"What!?" Zabuza's eyes widen at this sudden betrayal.

"That's right, you're too expensive. So I've decided to take you off the payroll." He is clearly out of his mind. "Of course, even these thugs I brought with me cost something. So, if you could manage to slaughter a few of them before they take you down, I'd appreciate it. Think you can manage that, Demon Ninja of the Mist?" Gato laughs. "Look at you, you look about as demonic as a wet kitten."

Obviously, this fool has never seen anything like Naruto before. Because a fox is pretty close to a cat, and Naruto can look pretty demonic when wet. I should know, I've dumped him in a river before.

"Well, well, Kakashi…it would seem that our fight is at an end. Since I'm no longer in Gato's emply, Tazuna is safe. We have no quarrel." Zabuza's quick change of pace is a little surprising, but also not. It makes sense that he would see his former employer as a more immediate threat, considering that we're technically on defense.

Kakashi catches on immediately. "Yeah, I suppose you're right." And part of being right means that since Gato still wants Tazuna dead, that we're going to have to fight him if Zabuza doesn't take him out first.

Gato approaches us, first arriving at Haku's still body. "That reminds me, you little punk! You grabbed me and nearly broke my arm! I've been meaning to repay you for that!" He viciously kicks Haku right in the face. "I only wish he was alive to feel it." I know that it didn't hurt him, but it still lights a fire inside me that's refusing to go out.

Naruto loses his cool in an instant. "Get away!" He races towards Haku, with no concern for his own safety. "Get away from him, you scum!"

"Hey!" Kakashi grabs him by the back of his jacket. "Hey, stop, use your head!"

Despite being held back, Naruto doesn't take this lying down. "Well, what about you, Zabuza? You gonna let him do that!?"

"Be quiet, you fool." Devoid of emotion, that's how I would describe Zabuza right now. Cold and without any feelings whatsoever. "Haku's dead, what does it matter?"

"What!?" Naruto's temper spikes. "You mean you can just stand there and watch him get treated like a dog!? You and Haku were together for years! Doesn't that mean anything!?"

"You don't understand the way of shinobi. I merely used him, just as Gato used me." It's actually rather sad that Zabuza believes in the old notion that ninja are nothing more than tools. I sure don't see it that way. "Now, it's over, his usefulness is at an end. The loss of his strength and skill, yes, that means something to me. But the boy, nothing."

Naruto continues to seethe. "If you mean that, then you're a bigger rat than I thought."

"Okay, that's enough." Kakashi puts his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Calm down, Naruto, he's not the enemy, not right now."

But Naruto won't have it, he's not going to stop until he's said his piece. "Hut up! As far as I'm concerned, he's enemy number one!" Naruto starts breathing hard. "Why you…you ungrateful…after everything he did for you…Haku lived for you! You were the most important thing in the world to him! And he meant nothing to you!? Nothing at all!? While he was sacrificing everything for you, you never felt anything at all for him!?" I can hear the tears forming in Naruto's eyes. "And if I become stronger, does that mean I'll become as cold-hearted as you are!? He threw his life away! And for what!? For you and your dream!? You never let him have a dream of his own, but he didn't care. And you just toss him aside, like he was nothing. A broken tool…man, that's so wrong. So wrong!"

There's silence, before Zabuza responds. "You talk too much." Then, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it myself. When Zabuza turns to glance at Naruto, I can see the tears falling from his eyes. "Your words cut deep, deeper than any blade. While he fought you, his heart was breaking in two. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind. He felt pain and sorrow. And now, curse him, I feel them too. And something else, I feel content that this is the way it ends." Using only his teeth, he rips the bandages off his mouth, exposing sharp teeth." Then a smirk crosses his face. "Well, cat got your tongue? Are you surprised to discover that I'm human? Even shinobi are human, no matter how hard we try to escape that simple fact, we always fail." He sighs. "Well, at least, I have failed." His voice suddenly grows in strength. "Boy, give me your kunai!"

Reaching into his pouch, Naruto pulls out a single kunai, tossing it into the air. "Here." It flies towards Zabuza, who catches it in his mouth and charges.

Gato panics, running back towards his crowd of thugs. "That's enough of this, do it! Take him down, now!"

Even though the thugs heed the order, Zabuza is still a force of nature, even with both of his arms useless. Spears get stabbed into his back, but even then, he keeps chasing after Gato, tearing through everyone in his path. Until, finally, he drives the kunai right into Gato's chest. The only thing that tears him away from his revenge if the many spears that get driven into his back.

As Zabuza stumbles away, Gato coughs, blood coming out of his mouth. "You crazy fool, if you're so eager to join your friend, go ahead. But you're not taking me, not this time."

A wry tone colors Zabuza. "I won't be joining Haku. Where he's gone, I cannot follow."

"Stay back!" Gato backs towards the ledge. "Stay back!"

Zabuza grins, getting right up in Gato's face. "No, my friend, it's the other place we're going to. You an me both, Gato! I can't think of a more fitting destination for a demon ninja, can you!? I'm told there are many demons down of all shapes and sizes." He's terrorizing Gato before ending him. He wants the thrill of seeing the fear in Gato's eyes before the light leaves them. "Oh, yes, I should fit right in! You, on the other hand, Gato, I fear you're in for a long and painful eternity!" He rips the kunai out of Gato's chest, proceeding to slash him to pieces with it, before tossing him over the end of the bridge and into the water.

With the shipping tycoon and drug lord dead, Zabuza makes his way back over to us, the thugs parting for him out of fear. He looks terrible, like a hedgehog with all of those spears poking out of him. And there's blood pouring down his body. With all of the damage he sustained, it would take a medical miracle to save him. And honestly, I'd rather not deny him the death of a shinobi. He fought for what he believed in, even if that was revenge.

The kunai drops from his mouth, and he staggers, his life finally starting to fade. He collapses to the ground, blood pooling around him like a crimson pond.

Naruto doesn't want to see it, but Kakashi shakes his head. "Don't turn away. When you live like a warrior, this is how it ends."

I almost curse my good hearing as I listen to the fading of Zabuza's heart. On the other hand, I'm more than happy when Sasuke's eyes start to flutter open. He groans a little, his body obviously still in pain from his earlier exertions. "What…happened…?

Sakura turns to look at Sasuke and gasps. "Sasuke!" Tears start flowing from her eyes and she plops down on the ground, pulling Sasuke into her arms. "He's okay! He's alive!"

I scoff quietly. "Wow, thanks for having so much confidence in me. I told you that he was gonna make it, didn't I?"

He groans again, louder this time. "Sakura, that hurts."

"Sasuke…!" Sakura just keeps on crying, despite my many attempts to reassure her that Sasuke was going to be just fine. _Honestly, she gets so worked up when it comes to him._

His eyes drift to me, narrowing a little. "Did you…"

"Yeah." I know very well where that question was going. "Naruto lost it earlier, so I ran over to get you. You were already unconscious, but I did my best to get out all of the needles and seal up the holes. If you're lucky, there shouldn't be any scarring at all." I touch the few remaining shallow cuts on his face, rubbing my thumb over them as my fingers start to glow. A moment later, they're all sealed shut. "There, now the girls won't be complaining that you've got scars on your pretty face."

That earns me his usual glare, though it seems a little half-hearted to me. But his determination wins out over his pride, and he presses his hands to the ground, trying to sit up.

Sakura panic. "No! What are you doing!? You shouldn't move."

Ignoring whatever residual pain is in his body, Sasuke sits himself up. "How's Naruto? And what happened to that guy in the mask?"

I wrap my arm around Sasuke's waist, pulling him to his feet. "Why don't you see for yourself?" I nod my head over towards where Naruto and Kakashi are standing next to Haku's body.

Sakura stands up, hanging her head. "The one in the mask…he's dead."

Sasuke's eyes find Haku's body. "Dead? But how? Did Naruto do it!?"

Sakura looks sad, and shakes her head, so I roll my eyes and gaze down towards Haku. "It…was Kakashi. He was aiming for Zabuza, but Haku got in the way, taking the hit instead."

The pink-haired suck up smile. "I had faith in you, Sasuke. I knew you'd pull through. You're too cool a guy to stay down for long."

I sigh and shake my head. "Let's not forget your trusty medic who did all the real work…" _Hell, I even kept Kakashi on his feet, so give me a little credit here…_

Sakura takes hold of Sasuke, supporting him herself as she waves and yells. "Naruto, over here! Look, it's Sasuke! He's all right! He's all right!"

As Naruto turns, his eyes widen. And under his startled and relieved gaze, Sasuke raises his hand. And the smile that one simple gesture puts on Naruto's face is adorable. He really is a little ball of sunshine.

Kakashi looks at us and smiles. "Well, well, will wonders never cease?"

I sweatdrop irritably. "Seriously…it's like no one appreciates a good medic."

"Hey!" One of the thugs taps his weapon on the ground. "Don't go getting too comfortable."

"This party ain't over yet. Who's gonna pay us now that Gato's gone?"

"No way we're gonna leave here empty-handed. So we'll just have to hit that village and see what they've got for us."

As the thugs celebrate that idea, I start walking back over to Kakashi and Naruto. My blood is boiling, for many reasons. I feel a little unappreciated, restless, and like I really got left out of this fight. It's not a pleasant combination of emotions.

Naruto turns to Kakashi. "Come on Kakashi-Sensei, you must have a jutsu that can take care of this bunch of losers."

"Not right now, I used too much of my chakra." Kakashi really does look wiped out. I probably should have seen that coming, seeing as he whipped out his Sharingan for most of this fight.

I walk just past them, stopping in front of Haku's body. "Don't worry, I can handle these idiots…"

Kakashi inhales sharply. "Ciara, I know that you're strong, but you're a medic. You're not supposed to be on the front lines."

"I know, and normally, that would be reasonable." I flex my fingers, then clench my fists. "But remember what I said, I'm more than just a medic. And I got rather bored just sitting on the sidelines. I want to have some fun , tell me, do you want them scared and running for the hills? Or would you prefer them six feet under?"

Before Kakashi can answer me, the thugs charge at us. But out of nowhere, a crossbow bolt stops them in their tracks. I look behind us and see that the villagers have come out to stand up for their land, led by little Inari.

"There's one little thing you're forgetting about!" Giichi stands behind Inari, weapon in hand. "Befoer you set one foot in our village, you'll have to go through all of us!" At his words, the villagers start cheering, waving their makeshift weapons in the air.

Naruto grins. "Inari!"

The little guy returns the grin and flicks his nose. "Heroes usually show up at the last minute, ya know!"

While it warms my heart to see them standing up for themselves, I would still rather put and end to this myself, and quickly. "So, Kakashi-Sensei? What's it gonna be? Hills? Or a watery grave?"

Kakashi frowns at me. "There's no need to kill them…all we need to do is drive them off."

"Alright, non-lethal it is." With the thugs starting to look nervous, I figure that I might as well give them something to be scared of. I jump high into the air and make a series of hand signs, focusing chakra once again into my hands and feet. "Wind Style: Waxing Crescent Dance!" And as I spin through the air, I release thick blades of wind from my hands and feet, sending them flying at the mercenaries.

Since my Waxing Crescent Dance is blunter than my Waning Crescent Dance, on account of the thicker shape of the wind blades, instead of killing the mercenaries, they are all thrown backwards into the water on impact. And I've released over half a dozen blades, all of them hitting several marks each. I hit the ground on my feet and left hand, slashing my right hand across my field of vision and clearing a few of the remaining thugs from sight.

Soon, there's only a couple of them left, so I walk up to them, swaying my hips cockily. A smirk curves my lips as I gaze at the two much taller men. And it's satisfying to see the looks of sheer terror on their faces. _Well, I might not be fully appreciated by my allies for my medical skills, but my enemies sure fear me for my combat skills. I guess that's close enough._ "Boo."

I hadn't actually expected that to work, but as soon as the word comes out of my mouth, the two of them shriek like little girls, and sprint to the edge of the bridge, careening over the side and falling down towards the water. _Wow, they must really have wanted to get away from me._

Looking over the side, I can see them swimming frantically towards a boat docked right next to the bridge. I smirk at the sight and yell over the side. "I hope you all can swim! I imagine that it's cold down there with all the sharks!" I have no idea if there are actually sharks in the water, but I wouldn't doubt it. In any case, it's not my fault if they can't swim, you shouldn't come to a place like this if you can't.

Cheers go up everywhere as I walk back towards Haku's body. Kakashi walks past me, approaching Zabuza instead. And he returns, carrying Zabuza in his arms. And almost like nature is crying for Haku, it starts to snow. Kakashi puts Zabuza down next to Haku, then puts a hand on my shoulder and guides me away.

"Thank you, Kakashi." Zabuza's voice sounds so weak now, it's almost heartbreaking. And it's not too long after the sun comes out, that I hear Zabuza's heart stop beating.

Naruto starts crying his eyes out. "He told me, where he came from, it was always snowing, all the time."

"Of course…his spirit was as pure as the snow." Kakashi has spouted poetry, and somehow, I'm not surprised. This is a far cry from my first impression of him, as someone a little goofy. "You never know, Zabuza, maybe you will join him there."

I approach Naruto and give him a big warm hug, wrapping him in my arms. "It's okay…it's all going to be okay…"

He sniffles a little and looks into my eyes with his bright blue ones. "Yeah…we did it…"

 _Yes, we most certainly did._


	17. Prelude to Despair

**Alright, so this here is the end of the Land of Waves arc. It went a lot slower than I hoped it would, since I'm quite eager to get on to the Chunin Exams arc. That is going to be a ton of fun, especially since the circumstances permit me to explore an alternate route to the canon, because all of the teams split up for the first couple of exams.**

 **So, look forward to that. For now, though, it's time to wrap up this arc once and for all. This chapter was originally supposed to be a lot shorter, but then I started getting ideas… Ideas are a very dangerous thing.**

* * *

Thanks to Tazuna convincing a couple of the villagers to help, since Kakashi has been fairly wiped out since the battle, we've managed to erect graves for Haku and Zabuza. After pretty much offing them ourselves, for no reason, in the end, it's the least we can do. Plus, it would be downright disrespectful, and smelly, to just leave them on the bridge, and terribly rude to dump them in the water.

Zabuza's sword is stabbed into the ground, sticking up as his grave marker. While Haku's grave is marked by a bag filled with the remnants of his shattered mask. It's all we could really do to make the graves, apart from the crosses and flowers.

Sakura kneels at the graves, a sombre look on her face. "Is that really it, Kakashi-Sensei? Is that the ninja way? To use, and be used by people, like tools?"

Kakashi lowers his head. "Shinobi are all merely tools in the hands of destiny. No point in wondering whether it's right or wrong, it just is. It's the same in the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"Well if you ask me, if that's what being a ninja's all about, something's out of whack." Naruto has a good point. And he would know better than anyone how it feels to be looked at as a thing, instead of a person. "Is that why we go through all this training? Just to end up like them?"

"What is the reason for that?" Even Sasuke wants to know. Now, it's clear that they want a serious answer.

Kakashi sighs. "Well, it's a question without an answer. And that is something we ninja have to deal with every day of our lives. Like Zabuza and the kid."

Naruto's shoulders shake, then, he straightens up and exhales quickly. "Okay! I've just come to a decision. From now on, I'm finding my own ninja way. A way that's straight and true, without any regrets. From now on, I'm following the way of Naruto!"

I smile at him softly. "Do that, and I'm sure that you'll make everyone proud." Of course, I'm already proud of the idiot. I always have been, and always will be.

* * *

We stick around for several more days, mostly relaxing and hanging out with Inari and some of the village kids while the bridge's construction is completed. And without the threat of Gato looming over everyone's heads, half the village pitches in to help, speeding up the construction time immensely.

And with the bridge now safe, it frees up some of my time for doing things like healing. That's all I seem to be doing on this trip, since everyone else has been intent on getting themselves into as much trouble as humanly and inhumanly possible.

Of course, that's also time for Kakashi to rest after his difficult battle, and for Naruto and Sasuke to recover after nearly getting themselves killed by Haku. And to be frank, I am not a lenient warden. Their meals are carefully monitored by yours truly, and their sleep schedules are vigorously enforced by me. Sasuke doesn't take to that very well, but I make sure to make it clear that he doesn't have a say in the matter. I can be very persuasive.

* * *

With the bridge complete, most of the village is there to see us off. And Tazuna is positively glowing with happiness and pride. "We could never have finished the bridge without you. I can't tell you how much we're going to miss you."

"Do be careful." Tsunami smiles like such a mom, and I can see where Inari gets his smile from.

Kakashi nods. "Thank you for everything.

"Now, now, don't get all choked up. We'll come back and visit real soon." Naruto is already making promises for a return trip. And I just hope that they'll bring me along next time as well.

The promise makes Inari start to tear up. "You swear you will?"

That surprises Naruto, who starts to tear up as well. "Of course." He sniffs a little. "You know, Inari, it's alright to cry if you want. There's nothing wrong with that. Go for it!"

"Who says I wanna cry!?" Inari snaps right back. "Anyway, if there's nothing wrong with it, then why don't you go on and cry?"

"No, you first?" Naruto's determination coaxes him into the weirdest staring contests, I swear. "Forget it!" He turns around, tears already starting to leak out. And once his face is no longer visible to Inari, both of them break out into full blown sobbing.

I shake my head and wave goodbye to them all. "Now, don't go getting yourselves into trouble again! The next time there's a visit, it's gotta be a happy one, right!?"

Inari grins through his tears. "Right!"

With that, we turn our backs on the Land of Waves, walking across the bridge and back towards the mainland. Naruto, in particular, seems very relaxed. "As soon as we get back, I'm gonna let Iruka-Sensei fix me up a whole mess of ramen to celebrate a mission accomplished. Oh, and just wait until I tell Konohamaru about all my adventures! The kid's gonna worship me!"

"Would these adventures happen to include when you got yourself poisoned? Or when you nearly killed a poor little rabbit?" I glance back at Naruto, a grin on my face. "Oh, and I was wondering…did you ever mistake Haku for a girl?" Considering his looks, it's totally reasonable that Naruto might have had the thought cross his mind.

Naruto blushes bright red, which compliments his tanned skin. "Hey! Did Sasuke tell you that!?"

I raise an eyebrow. "No…" I glance at Sasuke. "Did you know about that?"

He shakes his head. "No."

With a satisfied smirk on my face, I walk a little ahead of them, before spinning on my toes and walking backwards. "Well, when we get home, I'm going to tackle my teammates and brag about getting to leave the village for so long. They've been stuck helping out at the academy and the intelligence center."

Kakashi raises an eyebrow, but makes no comment as Sakura brightens considerably. "Hey-"

"Yeah?" Naruto obviously thought that Sakura was talking to him.

"Not you, Naruto." She looks around him at her obvious crush. "Sasuke, when we get back, do you wanna go out and do something together?" _That was a not so subtle way of trying to ask him out on a date._

"I don't think so, thanks." He turns her down flat.

"Oh, okay…" That put her out more than I was expecting. I'll have to keep an eye on her…just in case. _Wouldn't want her to do something stupid because of a broken heart._

Naruto jumps at the opportunity. "Sakura, I'll do something with you if you want."

"What!? Hey, that was a private conversation!" Sakura grabs Naruto by the collar, keeping him back while the three of us keep walking.

I notice Sasuke's eyes drift to me, so I raise an eyebrow at him this time. "What's up? You're staring more than you usually do when you're focused on something." It's a little quirk I've noticed over the last couple of weeks. He stares more intensely than anyone else I've met.

His eyes widen, then narrow at me. "I was just wondering where you've been hiding all those jutsu of yours…"

"Oh?" He's gotten curious about me, though I can't really blame him, since I guess I could be seen as something of a wild card. "Well, I already told you that I didn't show off any of my talents at the academy. I just didn't want to draw extra attention t myself. I already get plenty of that because I'm best friends with the village prankster."

Sasuke frowns. "How did that happen, anyway?"

"How did what happen?" He's certainly being more talkative than usual, but I blame that on his curiosity.

"Being friends with that…dobe." He looks back to where Sakura and Naruto are still fighting a bit. "If you're so much smarter than him, then why do you hang out and stick up for him so much?"

I try not to take offense to him insulting my best friend, so I put on a smile instead. "Well, no one else wanted to be my friend when I arrived at the academy, so I guess I just latched onto Naruto. I mean, it's not like I've got anyone else around to pay attention to me. Plus, Naruto's a lot smarter than you give him credit for, and he's actually a nice person. Anyway, to answer your first question, I just kept my special jutsu in my back pocket, waiting for the right time to start using them in front of others. There's not much reason to go using them around academy students, so I just held myself back and waited."

"Hn." He looks away from me, and seems more than a little miffed. _What's his problem? It's not like he doesn't have some jutsu stashed away in his back pocket for a special occasion._

But now, I feel like probing a little. "So, what really brought that on? I didn't hear you interrogating Naruto on his shadow clones."

He scoffs and turns his head away. "Nothing, I was just wondering."

"Oh, really…?" I get the feeling that there's something he's not telling me. But, I suppose that it can wait for another day. I'd rather not get into an argument like Sakura and Naruto, who are only just now catching up to us.

Naruto races up behind me and nearly bowls me over as he wraps an arm around my shoulders. "So, do you wanna hang out when we get back to the village!?"

He asks that like there's actually a chance that I could turn him down. "Sure, why not. Just make sure to drag me away before my teammates get a hold of me. If they snatch me up, who knows where they could take me."

Naruto grins. "Alright! Ichiraku, here we come! Oh, and I'll get Iruka-Sensei to pay for us! Alright!?"

"Yeah…whatever you say, Naruto." I poke him in the forehead, coaxing him off my shoulders. "Let's just get back to the village in one piece before we start finalizing any plans. I wouldn't want to have to cancel because we got attacked on the road, again."

"Okay!" Naruto skips on ahead, singing something about ramen, though I can't make out more than a quarter of the words. I shake my head as my smile widens. Oh…he may be an idiot sometimes, but he's my idiot best friend. And I wouldn't change a thing about him.

* * *

It's nearly evening when we finally see the village gates. It's been nearly two weeks since we were last here, so it feels a little strange to be walking back in now. Our mission got extended way beyond what it was supposed to take But, on the other hand, we all learned a lot, them more than me, and we even got to tango with a rogue ninja. That's some valuable life experience right there.

And speaking of valuable life experience, the two people that I've been wanting to tell about it are lounging around in front of the gates. And as soon as they see me, they start waving frantically. _Here we go…my overly attached teammates are here to welcome us home._

As we approach, I can see Akito's pale gray eyes twinkling behind his dark hair. "Hey, squirt, it's good to see that you made it back in one piece."

I laugh and shake my head. "Unless you've forgotten, I'm the medic. I'm the one who's supposed to make it back in one piece. The hard part was making sure that all of them did too."

Hiro grins at me as well. "Come on, Yuki-Sensei told us that you would be back today, so we thought that we'd go out and celebrate your first A-Rank mission."

"A-Rank?" I look at them curiously. "How did you know that it was ranked so high?"

Akito smirks. "Well, I kinda ambushed the old man and asked him what kind of mission you were on. And I was…very persuasive. So, he told me that after he got messages from Kakashi-Sensei, that the mission had officially been labeled an A-Rank mission. But then he said that there was nothing he could do about it until you guys came back. So, we've been waiting for you for two weeks."

"Ah…sorry about that." Of course they would be waiting. It was supposed to be a short escort mission, two days, maybe three tops. Instead, it turned into a two week escort and bodyguard mission, involving a dangerous rogue ninja, a wealthy drug lord and shipping tycoon, and several near-death experiences.

Hiro grabs me and pulls me forward to ruffle my hair. "So, team eat-out tonight?"

I grimace at the thought of being stuck with them the rest of the evening, since they'll never let me go home as long as they've still got questions. And those questions would be better answered tomorrow. "Sorry boys, I've got plans with Naruto tonight."

That puts the both of them out, but they bounce back quickly. Akito pats me on the head, putting my hair back into place. "Alright, then we'll hang out tomorrow. And you'll tell us everything then, alright?"

"Alright." These two, no matter how overly friendly and goofy they may act, do succeed in making me feel warm and fuzzy. It's a strange feeling, but one that is most welcome.

Escorted by my two teammates, the four of us walk through the village, Kakashi having disappeared during our exchange. He's probably gone off to give his report to Gramps. And this is definitely one report that is going to require a lot of explaining. I certainly don't envy the position he's in right now.

While Sakura continues her futile attempts to get Sasuke's attention, I look around, realizing that our return has not gone unnoticed. _Not again…_

It's been a while since the last time it's happened. Then again, it's been a while since Naruto and I walked the streets like this. The others get no particular notice, but as soon as gazes find Naruto, they harden, becoming cold once again. I grit my teeth and find over a dozen pairs of eyes that are condemning Naruto from the shadows. They think that I don't know why they're doing it. But they're dead wrong.

"Hey, Ciara, what's wrong?" Akito brushes a finger along my temple. "You look like you want to murder someone."

I hadn't realized that I was glaring back at them, but it's not as though they don't deserve it. Biting my tongue on the issue, I grab Naruto's hand. "Come on, let's go. I don't like this place."

"What the…" Hiro looks at me like I've suddenly turned into a puzzle. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Me and Naruto are out of here." I have a powerful urge to leave with him, to get away from all of the cold, hateful stares and go somewhere warm and bright. And there's only one place like that.

Ichiraku Ramen.

* * *

As planned, the two of us had a great time at Ichiraku's. Iruka even managed to meet us just outside the place, and Naruto conned him into buying dinner for the both of us. And Naruto spent the next hour slurping down ramen, and telling Iruka all about our mission to the Land of Waves.

Then, as usual, Naruto and I walked home together, and said goodbye at the door. The perks of living next to your best friend is the morning wake-up calls, and the goodnight hugs. It makes bonding so much easier.

That night, bonding is the only thing made easy, as a nightmare takes over my dreams.

* * *

 _There's fire, lots of it. It burns, hot, but dark. I don't feel it myself, but I can hear the screams of the boy who is suffering. His voice echoes like a dream long forgotten. Familiar, yet strange at the same time._

 _His magenta eyes bore into my soul as they scream to me for help. His light dirty blond hair hangs over his forehead, limp and drenched in sweat. He looks no older than me, but there's pain and experience in his eyes that mirror and exceed my own._

 _"Who are you?"_

 _There's a flash, of what almost looks like a turtle shell on his back. "Yagura…my name is Yagura…"_

 _He groans in pain, though I can't see who it is that's hurting him. I hold out my hand to him, trying to convince him to grab it. "Hold on, I'm coming for you!"_

 _"It's too late…" There's an eerie glow around him, and his image begins to fade. "They're coming…for all of us."_

 _"Coming? Who's coming? And what do you mean by us!?" I have so many questions, but he fades before he can give me any answers. "Yagura…?" That's what he said his name was. "Yagura…? Where are you?"_

 _"Yagura!?"_

* * *

A jolt of pain tears through my body, pulling me out of my nightmare. I breathe hard, my hand clasped to my chest as I try to process what I just saw. _That boy…he said his name was…Yagura? Who was he…?_

I shake my head, trying to clear it, and hopefully bring about some answers. But unfortunately, my mind remains stubbornly blank, refusing me the answers I seek. _Damn it…_

I may have only seen it once, but his face will continue to haunt my dreams.

Curling up under my covers, I shiver a little as his face burns itself into my brain. _Yagura…who are you? And what happened to you?_

 _And who is coming for me?_

* * *

 **I checked the timeline, and Yagura gets attacked sometime before the Chunin Exams. So, I figured, why not put it in right after they get back from a mission that would have effectively stopped his assassination? How's that for irony?**

 **But, seeing as his death and Isobu's sealing occur at two very different times, I'm going with Ciara having a nightmare each time a jinchuuriki dies. How is that for torturing my OC?**


	18. The Sand Ninja

**As promised, here comes the start of the Chunin Exams. I'm working on mixing up some of the battles later on, though only according to who loses, and who ultimately doesn't participate in the final round.**

* * *

As summer rolls around, it's hard to believe that we've been genin for almost three whole months. It's been an interesting experience, though there hasn't been anything particularly exciting since the mission to the Land of Waves. In fact, whenever the three of us aren't split up between the intelligence center, the academy, and the hospital, we're being thrown out on weekly missions into the nearby mountains.

It all started about a month and a half ago, not too long after I returned with Naruto and his team, when a group of travelers got lost in the mountains and needed a rescue. Apparently, it's not something too uncommon for hikers, travelers, and other hobbyists to get lost while roaming through the mountains. And as the weather has been perfect for outdoor excursions, more people have been going than usual, hence the need for weekly rescue missions.

Of course, they don't have to send my team every damn time. Gramps just brushed it off by saying that since we did so well on our first mission, and each mission since, that it's just more efficient to send us. We've gotten more than familiar with the terrain, and our rescues have been getting progressively faster.

I'm starting to get really sick of pulling dumb climbers and hikers out of ravines. And I'm also sick of climbing the same mountains every week. You'd think that people would find new places to get lost in. At this point, the village should just put up trail markers and signs in all the places people usually get lost. It would save so much time and energy. And I wouldn't have to go mountain climbing every damn week.

There's a sharp tap on my bedroom window, then two more, and another four. That's code for 'Open up the window and let me in'. _Damn Akito…it's way too early for this shit..._

After making sure that my pajamas are well in place, I throw back the curtains and slide open the window, revealing my dark-haired teammate. "What do you want this early in the morning? I'm barely awake yet." Am I a morning person? Not really. I much prefer my late nights. Unfortunately, early mornings are something of a requirement when you're a ninja. We have the worst hours since we're never really off-duty.

He grins at me, clearly way too happy first thing in the morning. "Yuki-Sensei wants us to meet up in our usual spot, training ground five." I silently curse him, and all other morning people like him.

"Fine." If she wants us to go there, then there's every chance that it's something big. It's off near the northern edge of the village, and it's fairly secluded, so there's little to no chance of anyone eavesdropping. It's also far enough away from people that the three of us don't have to worry about our practice sessions getting out of control. Not that they get out of control anyway, we've mostly done simple target practice so far.

* * *

It takes me a grand total of ten minutes to brush my hair, get changed, and get to the gates of the training ground. I know the route by heart, and could probably run it blindfolded, without even kicking aside a single pebble. And I'm not particularly fond of being late, no matter how grumpy I might be from being woken up early.

As I hop the last bend in the river, the river that runs through half the training grounds in the village, I find our regular meeting place. It's right next to the cliffs that extend all across one side of the village. Which means that somewhere along this expanse of rock are the faces of our former Hokage.

"Glad you could join us." Yuki-Sensei smiles at me from her perch on a large rock next to the water. "I know that you don't like mornings much, but I've got some exciting news for all of you."

I can already feel the sweatdrop forming on my temple. "Please tell me that I'm not getting another weird mission sprung on me that's going to turn out to be two ranks above what it's supposed to be." I know that the mission to the Land of Waves was a success and all, but it's not something I want to repeat again so soon.

She laughs and shakes her head. "No, it's nothing like that." Her smile fades a little, but there's still some pride adorning her face. "The three of you have performed exceptionally well on your missions so far. We predicted this, which is why the three of you were placed together as a team. And also…" She produces three pieces of paper. "For this."

One of the papers flutters through the air towards me, I snatch it and scan it quickly. "The Chunin Exams?"

She nods. "In order to participate, you're required to be part of a team of three. I'm perfectly confident that the three of your are strong enough and smart enough to pass the exam. That was clear enough, even when the three of you were in the academy. After all, your secret training sessions weren't quite as secret as you seem to think." She smirks pointedly at us.

Akito coughs. "So…you were spying on us?" He says that like he wasn't expecting it. Honestly, spying should be a given in a village full of ninja. No one can seem to keep their nose out of anyone else's business.

She shakes her head. "Not me, Lord Hokage. One of your spars with Hiro caught the attention of the ANBU, and they reported it to the Third. He's been watching you for nearly three years now. And you…" She turns to me. "He's been watching your development for much longer."

Of course he has. "But…even if you believe that we could do it, isn't it a little early to be putting us into the Chunin Exam?" Not that I'm complaining of course, it just seems a little odd to me.

Akito pats my shoulder. "If you don't feel ready yet, we can always take the exam next time." He's being very understanding, but at the same time, it also feels like he's underestimating me.

"It's not that I don't feel ready. If anything, that incident with Zabuza proved to me that when push comes to shove, I can handle myself in a dangerous situation. I gave him a few reasons to want me out of the way, even if I didn't play a part in actually ending him." Between being able to see through his mist, and my healing capability, I was something of a nuisance to him, and that's without counting when I played the diversion while we were trying to rescue Kakashi. "I just don't understand why you're recommending us so early. Isn't it normal to wait longer?" Not that I know a whole lot about the Chunin Exams to begin with.

Yuki-Sensei smiles brightly. "Well, it's true that we usually don't recommend teams until they've been ninja for a little longer. But…I'm not the only one recommending rookies." She chuckles lightly. "If all goes well, you might see most of your graduating class there as well."

Now that's a shock. "They're all getting recommended!?" _But that means that I'll have to go up against Naruto…_ This is not what I had in mind for the exams.

Hiro grins and nearly doubles over laughing. "Looks like it's gonna be a real party! This is gonna be fun!"

Hiro's laughter sobers up our sensei in a heartbeat. "Now remember, the Chunin Exams are not just a bunch of fun and games. It's good to have a positive attitude, but keep in mind that it's a dangerous test of skill and ability, to make sure that you're ready for promotion to chunin. But I really think that if the three of you go in there and do your best, you'll succeed."

I look back down at the paper, and it crumples just a little as I clench my fists. "So…you really think we can do it?" I inhale deeply and a warm feeling floods my chest. A smile creeps onto my face as I look at Akito and Hiro. "Alright, let's do this."

The two of them break out into identical grins. _They must have been waiting for me to decide… They wouldn't have pushed me into it, but they definitely want to participate. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to hold them back now. If anything, I'm going to do whatever I can to push us forward._

Yuki-Sensei smiles at us. "You have one week before the exam. I suggest that you spend as much of it training together as you can. But take the day before the exam off and let yourselves rest. Get to know each other better, and improve your team cohesion. And remember that there will be genin teams from other villages coming here to participate in the exam. So if possible, try not to get into any fights with them beforehand. We don't want an international incident on our hands." That's more than reasonable. Etiquette is required whenever you're dealing with foreign guests.

"Alright!" Hiro claps me on the back. "Then how about we all meet back here this afternoon. We can go over some combination attacks. That should keep us busy and out of trouble."

"Okay, that sounds good." I like the idea of being a able to attack together. It could get us out of a tight spot in the future. "Then how about after lunch? We should try to get in as much time as possible. Without overdoing it, of course."

"Then it's a date!" Akito ruffles my hair before pulling Hiro away. "And in the meantime, the two of us have some trouble to get into before we have to stop!" He's a little too eager to get as deep into mischief as he can. He's not quite on Naruto's level, but he and Hiro are a force to be reckoned with, to be sure. Their antics are just a little less public. At least, less obviously public.

They disappear quickly, and I find myself sighing. "What did I do to get put on a team with those two?"

* * *

Since I've got the rest of the morning free, I might as well use it as an opportunity t catch up on some sleep. And there's a tree over near one of the parks that I'm rather fond of. It's got a couple of branches that grew wrong, and twisted together to make a little nook that fits me easily.

The tree soon looms above me, so I walk right up the side f the trunk, then pull myself into the branches and settle myself in the little nook. It's still packed with soft, clean moss, and for some reason, bugs seem to be repelled from this spot, so I don't have to worry about any uninvited visitors of the creepy crawly nature.

Wiggling into place and snuggling against the soft moss, my eyes slide shut.

* * *

 _In the darkness, there is a figure, short, almost as short as me, with dirty blond hair and dulled eyes._

 _I know that face._

 _"Yagura?" I reach out to him, not entirely sure what I'm trying to do yet. "Yagura, are you alright?"_

 _But there's silence, he doesn't say a word. Blood drips from his mouth, and his glassy eyes don't move. There isn't even a twitch of the ears to show that he recognizes my presence. He's as still as a corpse._

 _"Yagura? Talk to me, Yagura…" There's something inside me that knows that it's a futile battle, but I still feel compelled to try, no matter how futile it may be. "Please…"_

 _Then, a huge shadow looms above us, and three shaking, waving strips move through the air. "What's that…?"_

 _Then, there's a flash of bright light, and a flurry of angry voices. And everything around me turns white._

* * *

I open my eyes, only to see that the sun is now high in the sky. _Looks like it's almost noon._ Then, I look down through the branches, to see the commotion that woke me up. Some, I recognize, others, I don't. And I'm not the only one up in the trees. Sasuke is in the next tree, looking down at the scene. For some reason, it seems that he hasn't noticed me yet. And I'm perfectly alright with not being noticed right now.

There's a kid on the ground, Konohamaru, I think his name is. I think he's my mom's sister's kid. But she died years ago, so I can't be sure. She married out of the clan before I was born, and she died before the incident, so the kid might have just been a year old when he lost his mom.

Of course, where's there's trouble, there's Naruto, he and Sakura are both down there, along with a couple of other kids who have goggles that match the ones on Kononhamaru's head. In fact, they look like the same goggles that Naruto used to wear.

On the other hand, the guy dressed in black, with the purple face pain has a Sand headband sewn into his outfit. From the looks of it, Konohamaru ran into him, and he's not all that pleased about it. There's a girl with him, blond hair tied up into four ponytails. Whereas he has a package wrapped in bandages on his back, she's carrying what looks like a giant folding fan. _Interesting…they must be here for the Chunin Exams._

The guy in black picks Konohamaru up by the collar, nearly choking the poor kid. Naruto takes a step forward, one hand twitching towards his shuriken holster. "Konohamaru!"

"So, does this hurt, punk?" The Sand ninja tightens his grip with a smile.

The blond clicks her tongue irritably. "Put him down, Kankuro, or you know you'll pay for it later."

Sakura clasps her hands together, looking apologetic. "Hey, I'm sorry. The whole thing was my fault.

"You better take your hands off him right now!" Naruto, predictably, blows a gasket in a split second.

Kankuro just grins eagerly. "We've got a few minutes before he gets here, let's mess with these punks. Huh?"

Konohamaru squirms in Kankuro's grip, kicking his legs all over the place as he struggles to release himself. "Let go of me, jerk!"

"You're feisty." Kankuro snickers. "But not for long."

Kankuro squeezes Konohamaru a little more, and the poor kid whimpers like a puppy. My hands twitch, but I know that it's better for everyone that I stay uninvolved. Besides, I don't imagine that they'll kill the kid. If they did, we'd have a serious international incident on our hands. Plus, I sense no bloodlust from either of them.

"Put him down!" Naruto charges at Kankuro, intent on freeing Konohamaru.

With my senses getting better every day, I can tell that Kankuro is using some kind of chakra technique. But due to a complete lack of hand signs, it's impossible to precisely analyze what he's doing. All I know is that Naruto gives a loud yelp as he's thrown backwards by an invisible force. And he lands not so gracefully on his butt, before rolling onto his back.

I wonder if it's instinct, or just luck, but Sasuke has the most amazing timing as he jumps into the branches of the next tree over. And I can see his eyes narrowing as he looks down on the scene. Thankfully, he hasn't noticed me yet. That would take some explaining that I really don't want to bother with right now.

Naruto pushes himself up, very alarmed. "What the-? What was that!?" Seems like he's as baffled about what just happened as I am.

"You're a Leaf genin too?" Kankuro's smirk grows wider. "Looks like your village is full of wimps."

"Ugh." Naruto cringes a little as Konohamaru struggles for breath. "Konohamaru!" And the two little future ninjas join him in his exclamation.

As Kankuro lifts the kid higher into the air, he squeaks a bit. "Hey! Cut it out! This hurts!"

Naruto jumps back to his feet. "That's it! Drop him now or I take you apart! You got that, fool!?"

"You're the fool!" Sakura lashes out and grabs Naruto, putting him into a headlock. "Making threats isn't going to help, Naruto!"

Kankuro leers at her. "You're annoying, all of you. I don't like runts, or any other scrawny weaklings. So when a wimp like this starts shooting off his mouth…" His sadistic gaze falls onto Naruto next. "I just wanna break him in half."

The girl sighs. "Fine, I'm not involved in any of this, okay?" Although, it would seem that someone else is getting involved, at least, quietly, because a mysterious red-headed kid appears in the next tree over, his arrival as silent as the grave. Who's he…? He's not from the Leaf, that's certain. I would know if there was a ninja like that in our graduating class.

Nodding, Kankuro's attention returns to Konohamaru. "First, I'll take care of this little squirt. Then, I'll waste the other one." He draws his hand back, aiming to punch Konohamaru in the face.

But, just as I draw a couple of shuriken to throw at Kankuro, Sasuke makes a move. Aiming carefully, he releases a pebble from his hand, scoring a direct hit on Kankuro's hand with it. That has Kankuro dropping Konohamaru on the ground in pretty short order.

Sasuke bounces another rock up and down in his hand and stares down at the Sand genin. "You're a long way from home, and way out of your league."

Sakura is more than a little pleased to see him. "Sasuke!"

Konohamaru runs over to Naruto, leaving Kankuro to fume and massage his injured hand. "Great, another wimp to tick me off."

Sasuke stops bouncing the rock in his hand, opting to crush it into dust instead. "Get lost."

I sit back and sigh. _Well, this could have gone a whole lot better. Luckily for them, Sasuke beat me to the punch. I doubt that I would have been so calm if I'd gotten caught up in the heat of their fight._

While Sakura and the little girl with Konohamaru squeal over Sasuke, Konohamaru turns to an embarrassed Naruto. "How come you're not cool like that!?"

"Ah, what do you mean? I could have taken that guy out in two seconds flat!" Naruto may be boasting, but if push came to shove, I have no doubt that with some help from his shadow clones, he really could have give Kankuro a run for his money.

Kankuro fixes his gaze on Sasuke. "Hey punk, get down here. You're the kind of pesky little snot I hate the most. All attitude and nothing to back it up." He pulls on the bandages that are wrapped around the long object on his back, detaching it from his body and placing it on the ground.

The girl's eyes widen. "What!? Are you gonna use the Crow for this?"

Finally, the red-head pipes up. "Kankuro, back off." He definitely has a commanding, and somewhat dangerous air about him. "You're an embarrassment to our village."

There's something about the red-head that's throwing me off. Something familiar and yet…not. And there's a distinct aura of something dark and deadly about him. Not to mention that it's starting to get hard to keep my chakra locked up tight. Something in him is just trying to drag it out. And considering how uncomfortable Suzaku is making me right now, I'm not sure that I want to give away my position just yet.

Then, the red-head locks eyes with me. _Busted._ But he turns his gaze away quickly enough.

Everyone down below, on the other hand, is shocked by his arrival. Kankuro, more than the others. But he quickly replaces his shock with a nervous smile. "Uh, hey Gaara." _So…his name is Gaara, huh?_

Gaara is not amused. "Have you forgotten the reason we came all the way here?"

"Uh, I-I know. I-I mean…they challenged us." Kankuro is stumbling over his words. "They started the whole thing, really." He must really be scared of this guy. He barely looks any older than me. A few months at most, and considering that I'm the youngest of our graduating class, that's saying something. "H-here's what happened-"

"Shut up." Gaara's voice is barely louder than a whisper, but I know that everyone heard it. "Or I'll kill you." A shiver goes down my spine at the sound of his voice. _They look like they're on the same team…or at least know each other. So what's with the death threat?_

"Uh, right, I was totally out of line." Despite his cocky attitude earlier, Kankuro is now sweating bullets. "Sorry, Gaara, I was totally out of line." And it would seem that repeating himself is something he does when scared. _That might be good to know for future reference…_

Gaara turns his head towards Sasuke. "I'm sorry for any trouble he caused." The two of them keep their eyes on each other, analyzing and evaluating each other. And probably forming all sorts of biased and miscalculated opinions. A first impression can only do so much.

Their silent staring match is interrupted, however, by the sudden appearance of two people I know very well. Gray eyes glance up at me, accompanied by a bright grin. "Hey Ciara, you didn't forget about our practice session, did you? We promised to go back to the training ground after noon."

"No, I didn't forget." I get to my feet and brush some of the moss off. And judging by the shocked look I get from Sasuke, he had no idea that I was there at all. I jump down, and hit the ground lightly. "I was just taking a nap up there. After all, it's your fault that I had to get up early. You know that I'm not a morning person."

Naruto points at me dramatically. "Where the hell did you come from!?"

I sweatdrop. "The tree…obviously. There's a little nook up there that's got moss in it. I like to sleep there." My eyes drift away from Naruto and land on Kankuro. "Lucky for you that Sasuke got involved, otherwise I might not have continued to hold back my temper."

Before he can retort, Hiro interrupts him. "Come on, let's go. We've got combinations to practice. And I wanna get in an hour of sparring with Akito, so we're gonna need you to patch us up afterwards."

"Got it…" If I had a dollar for every scratch, cut, bruise, or other injury that I've had to deal with for them, I would have enough money to buy Naruto ramen for a month.

Akito smirks. "That, and its about time that we really start throwing some ninjutsu at each other. We've gone easy so far, but we need to kick it into high gear now." He glances at the foreign genin. "Especially now that they're here. That's why we planned to practice in the middle of nowhere, right?"

"Right…because having us throwing ninjutsu at each other is going to end well." I can see so many ways that this could go horribly wrong. "Even if we're out in the middle of nowhere, it's still going to end badly. And if someone ends up in the hospital, it's not my fault." I sigh and step between them. Then I look back at Naruto and grin. "See you later then. Try not to cause too much trouble, Naruto."

"Yeah, see you later." He blinks at me in confusion, but it's understandable. At thirteen years old and both nearly a foot taller than me, my teammates strike an imposing figure. And it seems that no one else is going to make a comment, so I let them drag me off for a training session.

"So, what happened over there with that Sand genin? Seems like he really managed to piss you off." Akito lowers his head and leans over a little so that I can't help but look him in the eyes. "What's up?"

I grit my teeth. "He was being a bully. Do I need another reason? And yes, I know that I almost let my temper get the best of me, and that's bad. But he was picking on a kid, and that doesn't sit well with me. I'll try to control myself better, but don't expect a miracle."

Hiro just laughs. "Well, having a good sense of justice isn't a bad thing. Besides, the punk probably deserved worse." That makes me smile, and when we arrive at the training spot, I'm totally ready to get to work.

Since we have a week until the exams start, training is going to be important, but we also have to be careful not to overdo it. Injuring ourselves now will only hurt our chances of getting promoted. As we have to be careful, we do things like target practice, sparring, and ninjutsu training, mostly lightweight stuff, since our more interesting talents need to be kept secret, and we have no idea who could be spying on us to get an edge.

We spend all week training, except for the last day, which we spend relaxing, recuperating and hanging out. Yuki-Sensei had suggested that we spend the last day before the exams together to get to know each other better, thus improving our understanding of each-others' habits and tells, promoting teamwork and cooperation.

And boy, do I hope that spending this much time with these two will pay off later.


	19. Eyes Unfooled

**So, how about we start this chapter off with a dream. That's a good way to start the first day of the Chunin Exams, isn't it?**

 **And by dream, I mean dream, not nightmare. After all, I do intend to show the Uchiha boys in a better light than they're portrayed through a lot of the series.**

 **On that note, I'm also trying to get the feeling across that the Uchiha really are stoic and cold because they have to keep their emotions from running away with them, which is the whole background for the activation of the Sharingan. And I rather appreciate the idea of them keeping their emotions under wraps, just because they're stronger than in any other group.**

 **Let's welcome back little Itachi and Shisui for another dream, and a flashback.**

* * *

 _"Ciara?" That's Shi-Shi's voice. "Where are you?"_

 _I snicker a little, trying to keep my voice down. We're playing hide and seek, and the entire estate is within the rules for hiding places. But I chose my hiding spot carefully. There's no way he's going to find me._

 _"Hey, Itachi, you found her yet?"_

 _"No, she's hidden herself well."_

 _"Damn, she's getting better at this. She's going to make a great ninja someday."_

 _"Yes…she is."_

 _"So, where do you think she hid herself? I swear I've checked almost everywhere."_

 _"Well…I can think of one more place. You're her favorite uncle so…" Chi-Chi's fingers appear around the edge of the bedspread, and he pulls it up, revealing his face to me. "There she is, under your bed."_

 _"Aw…" I pout a little, until Shi-Shi appears and pulls me out from under the bed and into his arms._

 _There's a smile on his face as he bounces me up and down. "Caught you!"_

 _My pout is no match for his smile, and I end up giggling in his arms. "Shi-Shi, you're so funny!"_

 _"Aren't I?" He grins at me, nuzzling his nose into my hair._

 _"Shisui, you're spoiling her again." Chi-Chi frowns at Shi-Shi disapprovingly._

 _Shi-Shi pouts at him in mock outrage. "Hey! She's my niece, I'm allowed to spoil her!"_

 _Chi-Chi rolls his eyes. "And your being her uncle makes me her cousin, but I don't spoil her like you do."_

 _Shi-Shi laughs. "Yes you do, don't lie. I saw you sneaking her those dumplings last week. If you're not careful, all those sweets you give her are going to give her cavities. And they make her hyper too, but that doesn't stop you from caving in when she wants candy."_

 _Chi-Chi blushes bright red. "Okay…I suppose I spoil her a bit…"_

 _"A bit?" Shi-Shi raises an eyebrow. "And who's fault is it that she's got a raging sweet tooth now?"_

 _Chi-Chi's cheeks darken significantly. "She already had a sweet tooth, so don't go pushing that on me."_

 _"Right…" Shi-Shi rolls his eyes, bouncing me up a little more. "Well, then why don't we go and get you something to eat. You're hungry now, right?"_

 _My stomach answers for me, growling like a little dragon. "I want cherry pie!"_

 _Shi-Shi and Chi-Chi sweatdrop. Then, Shi-Shi shakes his head. "Of course she wants something sweet." He shoots a pointed look at Chi-Chi. "This is totally your fault."_

 _"Is not!"_

 _"Is so!"_

 _I giggle a little, because watching them argue is really funny. I love them both so much, and I want things to stay this way forever._

 _I never want to let them go._

* * *

Sunlight pours in through my window, rousing me from my sleep. I had another one, another dream about Itachi and Shisui. I haven't seen them in years, I guess because the two of them died in the massacre of the Uchiha Clan. And if that's true, then I'll never get to see them again.

Glancing over at my alarm clock, I notice that it's almost noon. _Wow, I slept forever._ Pulling myself out of bed, I shower and change, then grab a couple of sandwiches from the kitchen, and my registration papers from the counter. I've been waiting for this day all week, and there's no way that I'm going to fail this exam. I will be a chunin, no matter what.

As I open my door, I come face to face with brown eyes and a bright grin. "Well, good to see that you're up already. I thought that I might have to go in there and wake you."

I roll my eyes and step outside, shutting the door behind me. "You know that if you had, I would have kicked your ass, right?"

Hiro chuckles and points behind him to where Akito is sitting on a tree branch, waiting for us. "Come on, let's get a move on. There's only three hours before the exam starts."

"Sure." I move to take a step out the door, my bag attached to the belts that circle my hips. Then, I reconsider. "Actually, hold on, there's something I forgot."

Hiro blinks at me, bewildered, as I turn around and walk over to a large chest at the foot of my bed. It's the place that I keep some of my most important memories.

Rummaging through the various items in the chest, I move things aside, piling them against the sides of the chest. I'd hidden these precious items at the very bottom, because I never wanted anyone to find them and take them away from me.

 _*Flashback*_

 _I stir slightly, sensing another presence in my bedroom. And as my eyes slide open, I see a taller figure standing over my bed. And he's so familiar, dressed lightly in armor._

 _He bends down by my bed, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "I'm sorry. I'm leaving. But I came to see you one last time." He leans away, revealing his face, Itachi._

 _I rub my eyes and sit up. "Chi-Chi? What's wrong?" I remove my hands from my eyes and stare at him, noticing the tears all over his face. "Chi-Chi? Why are you crying?"_

 _He smiles sadly at me. "Because I just did something very bad…and now, I have to go away."_

 _"What!?" Tears fill my eyes and I wrap my little arms around his neck. "No! Chi-Chi, don't go! Stay with me!"_

 _He pats my head, and I can feel tears soaking into my shirt. "I'm sorry…" He carefully and gently extricates himself from my grip, and places two small tanto on my lap. "These are for you, so that you can protect yourself when you get older." Then, he removes a mask from his belt, and places it on the two small swords. "Keep this hidden, no one can know that you have it, okay?"_

 _"Chi-Chi…?" I sniffle a bit. "Where's Shi-Shi? Isn't he going to visit me?"_

 _Pain flashes through his eyes. "Ciara…I'm sorry, but Shi-Shi won't be coming to visit… If he could, he would. But I promise that you'll see him again someday."_

 _He moves to get up, so I grab onto his wrist and hold tightly. "No! Where are you going!? Tell me, Itachi! And where is Shisui!?"_

 _He freezes, a smile working its way back onto his face. "That's the first time you've said my name…" He sighs. "I wish it were under better circumstances." He pokes my forehead, and brings his face back down to my level. "Goodbye, Ciara. And know that Shisui and I love you very much." Another tear drips from his eye, before both of them turn red, and everything goes black._

 _*Flashback end*_

There, right where I left them, are the two tanto, with tiny names engraved on them. Itachi and Shisui Uchiha. I pull them out of the chest, turning them over in my hands. _He said that he wanted these two swords to protect me in the future…I suppose that it's time I let them._

I strap the two short swords to my belts, just above my medical bag. They fit there comfortably, and there's no issue in trying to reach for them. Itachi's faces to the right, and Shisui's to the left. That way, if I have to, I can draw both of them at once.

I just hope that Sasuke doesn't notice the small Uchiha crests on them. That's not something I'm looking forward to explaining. Especially when he knows a whole lot more about the organization of the Uchiha than I do. I don't fancy the idea of trying to respond to questions that I just don't have the answers to.

When I return to the door, well equipped for whatever trials lie ahead, Akito smiles. "Ready to do this?"

I nod. "As ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

The meeting room for the Chunin exams is three hundred and one in the academy building. It's rather nostalgic, actually, so I'm looking forward to seeing the place again. Not so much for my memories of the classes, but for memories with Naruto.

Akito frowns a little as we come out onto the second floor, only to find a huge crowd. "Hey…something's wrong." He whispers quietly so that only Hiro and I can hear. "That room says three hundred and one, but we're on the wrong floor."

"It says three hundred and one?" I squint at the sign above the room he's looking at. To me, it looks like it says two hundred and one. "Are you sure? because it doesn't look like that to me."

He nods, then glances at me curiously. "So, whatever is showing it to us isn't working on you, huh? Genjutsu then?"

"Could be…" I look at the two standing in front of the door. And even though they're shorter, I still recognize those faces. They're two of the chunin who work the gate. "Hey…those two…"

Akito nods. "Izumo and Kotetsu. They're both chunin. But what are they doing here?"

I glance up at the sign above the door. "My guess, they're the ones responsible for the genjutsu." I frown a little. "But how is it that no one else here has figured out what they're seeing isn't real?"

Hiro claps me on the back. "Probably because they're not as smart as you. Or, maybe you're just some sort of almighty goddess who can see through anything."

That makes a rock drop into my stomach. "I sure hope not. The last thing I need is people coming to me, begging me to solve all their problems."

"Well, let's find out what's going on, at least." Akito, being taller than me by a lot, simply peers over the heads of many of the gathered crowd. "There's got to be some reason that they're pulling this kind of stunt."

"Yeah…" I watch the proceedings through a hole in the crowd, only to nearly be squashed by that moving crowd when a boy gets thrown to the ground.

Kotetsu smirks down at the boy in front of me. "You're taking the Chunin Exams, but you can't even get past us?

"Why don't you just give up now, before you get hurt?"

"Yeah, I think I hear your mommy callin ya."

The girl who caught the boy, sporting two brown buns on top of her head, speaks relatively calmly. "Please let us through, we're supposed to be in there." She takes a step forward, only to be punched in the face and sent flying back next to the boy she caught.

"Hey, that's harsh…"

"Did you say harsh? Don't kid yourself, we're being nice by comparison. The exams are going to make this look like a picnic." The amusement on Kotetsu's face can't be disguised so easily.

And despite the many changes to his appearance, the sharpness in Izumo's eyes is clear. "Some of you won't survive the exams, others will be wrecked for life. And some of you may go crazy. For chunin, it's always life or death." He's watching us.

"You think it's a joke?" Kotetsu scoffs. "Chunin are qualified to lead missions. The lives of your squad members are in your hands, so you'd better be tough enough to take the heat.

Izumo laughs. "Delicate little girls don't belong here. We're just thinning out the herd. You won't pass anyway, so go home and play with your dolls." My fists clench at his words. _You'll find that girls who look delicate are the most dangerous._

"Nice speech." Sasuke walks up, flanked by Naruto and Sakura. "Now step aside and let me through." His eyes flick upwards. "And while you're at it, reverse the genjutsu. We can see through your illusion anyway." _So he can see it…_ "We're going to the third floor."

"What does he mean?"

"We're on the third floor."

Kotetsu shrinks a little. "A genjutsu, are you sure about that?"

"Of course he is." My patience has already worn thin, but my words draw eyes to me. "Don't you have better things to do than stand around here and harass a bunch of genin?"

Izumo's eyes flick to me, and I could swear that he recognizes me. "So, you noticed the genjutsu, huh?"

Sasuke's eyes flick to me briefly, before turning to Sakura. "Why don't you tell them? After all, you probably noticed it as soon as we walked in. After all, you have the best analytical skills on our squad. You must have seen this coming a mile away."

"I must have?" Sakura's bemusement shows on her strangely blank face. Then, she smiles. "Well, sure." Then, she gains confidence. "Sure, I saw it right away. This is only the second floor."

Sighing, I raise my hand, focusing chakra into it. "If you two aren't going to release the genjutsu, then I will." I've learned a few things about how genjutsu works between our old classes at the academy, and some studying in my free time. So, for a weak genjutsu like this, a little chakra spike should be more than enough. I flick my hand at the sign, and the air around it ripples. To me, it doesn't look like the number has changed, but judging by the muttering all around the hall, it worked.

Akito chuckles. "Well, there goes your little ploy. Though it was a little sloppy if you ask me."

Kotetsu eyes us warily. "Well, aren't we the smart ones. Not only noticing an illusion, but dispelling it as well…" His eyes turn to Sasuke. "Let's see how you deal with this!"

With Kotetsu aiming a kick at Sasuke's head, Sasuke returns the gesture, his reflexes proving to be impressive. However, a green blur flashes between the two, revealing the boy who crashed to the floor earlier. He catches each leg with a single hand, stopping the both of them in their tracks. It's quite impressive, actually.

As he releases the two, and Kotetsu hops back, the girl from earlier, and a boy with long hair approach. The boy looks like he's from the Hyuga clan, I'd know those eyes anywhere, since I had a few cousins descended from that particular clan. _I wonder if he can use the Byakugan…?_

The Hyuga speaks first. "Hey, what happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said to keep a low profile and don't let anyone see our skill level."

"I know, but-" The boy starts to protest, before turning towards Sakura with a blush on his face.

The girl shakes her head. "Nevermind…it's over, forget it."

Interestingly enough, the guy in green, with his shiny black hair worn in a bowl cut, approaches Sakura. "My name is Rock Lee. You are Sakura, right?" Despite the look of bewilderment on her face, this Rock Lee guy grins and gives her a thumbs-up. "Please be my girlfriend. I vow to protect you with my life."

Sakura deadpans. "Definitely…not."

"Why…?" Lee looks like he's had the world ripped out from under him.

"Because you're a weirdo." Her short rejection puts Lee out completely, and Naruto just snickers, finding it nothing short of hilarious.

Then the Hyuga walks over to Sasuke. "Hey, you, what's your name?" And Naruto, realizing that the Hyuga is talking to Sasuke, gets his panties in a twist. I can almost see the sparks coming from his eyes.

"It's common courtesy to give your own name before asking someone else's." Sasuke snips back at him, his attitude as clear as day for all to see.

The Hyuga ignores the comment. "Hey, you're a rookie, aren't you? How old are you, anyway?"

Sasuke's mouth twitches slightly. "I'm not obliged to answer."

"What's that?" The Hyuga gets a sour look on his face. And his female teammate is a little amused by the cold exchange.

"Hm…looks like this competition is shaping up a little differently than I expected." My eyes flick between these interesting competitors.

"Yeah, looks like." Akito chuckles. "Well, let's get going, it's time to get to the classroom. We should scope out the competition while we have the chance."

"Agreed." I turn towards the stairs and begin the walk to the classroom, where some of the other teams are headed already.

"Ciara!" Sakura catches up to me and grabs my hand, pulling slightly. "Wait, tell me! How did you guys see through the genjutsu earlier?"

I raise an eyebrow, then turn to Hiro and Akito. Hiro smirks. "Well, Akito and I know exactly where room three hundred and one is. We used to hang out in there all the time whenever we skipped class. Ciara, on the other hand…" He pats me on the head. "Didn't see the genjutsu at all. It's like it wasn't even there."

Sasuke narrows his eyes slightly, and I roll my eyes at his antics. "Don't ask me how, because I don't know, I just don't seem to fall prey to genjutsu. What I do know is that those two have a twisted sense of humor." I glance around, noticing that the two chunin are long gone. "Though I guess we won't have to worry about them again. They ran off with their tails between their legs."

"Speaking of running off." Akito jerks his thumb towards the stairs. "We really should get going. Better to be early than late."

"Yeah." I slip my hand out of Sakura's grip and walk over towards the stairs with the boys in tow. "See you guys later!" I wave my hand back at Sakura, and from the eyes on my back, I know that Sasuke and Naruto are staring at me as well.

"Wait!" That Hyuga guy calls out, probably to one of us. "Who are you?"

I glance back at him, to find his gaze fixed on me. "Well, wouldn't you like to know…" I have no intention of telling him, since it's something that I would rather keep a secret. My teammates may know my last name, but they haven't asked me any questions about it, thankfully. Though I don't know how much longer that's going to last. With the way my luck has been going lately, I wouldn't be surprised if my little secret gets out before the end of the exams.

Ignoring Neji, I walk to the stairs and ascend them, heading for where the exams are to be held. _Great…just what I need. People poking into my past._ This is going to blow up in my face, I just know it.

As we head for the room, Hiro bumps my shoulder. "Hey, don't get so worked up. Everyone is just sizing each other up right now. The fact that you got noticed at all means that they see you as an interesting competitor."

"I'd rather them not notice me at all." I see the door and head straight for it. "If they see me as a potential threat, then they'll just go that much harder during the exam." And that's something I would rather avoid, since I wouldn't want to hurt anyone too badly. I try to shy away from sadism.

* * *

Arriving in the testing classroom is interesting, since a few teams have already made it here, most are not from the Leaf, so I don't really recognize anyone. The boys look around eagerly and I just start sizing up all the opponents by height, weight, chakra signature and whatever tells I can find in their demeanors, which lets me know who their team leaders are.

So with me analyzing the competition, I start relaying some of my observations to Akito. "Age range is anywhere from twelve to about thirty-five. Most of them are younger. And I don't sense any particularly powerful chakra signatures. Except for those guys from the Sound, Sand, and Waterfall, all of them seem like small fry." Then I fix my eyes on a team from the Leaf, the one that has the Hyuga and Rock Lee on it. "Those three as well, they seem potentially dangerous."

"Good eye, I was thinking along those same lines. Though frankly, those Sand guys seem the most dangerous. Especially the small one. For some reason, his chakra reminds me just a tiny bit of yours. It's potent, dangerous, and his is kind of dark as well." Akito's eyes are trained on the red-headed Sand ninja, and I notice the ninja looking at me as well, and his eyes are a pretty seafoam, but as cold as a blizzard, and as empty as a bottomless chasm.

"Well, I can pretty much guarantee that if anything bad happens, we'll be able to handle it one way or another." I eye this Sand ninja warily. "I've got a few tricks that even Yuki-Sensei doesn't know about. But I'll try not to use those unless we get into some serious battles. For now, let's just watch."

I tug idly at the flared sleeves of my light blue shirt, exposing my shoulders further as the slits widen. It's something of a nervous tic, or a method of showing distraction. Except, this time I'm doing it on purpose. I'm trying to look innocent and harmless, when really, I'm as far from it as it's possible to get.


	20. Questions and Answers

**Alright, so I think that I've gone long enough with a single P.O.V. My Fairy Tail stories follow a randomly changing P.O.V. (though the P.O.V. changes depending on where the important information is going to be). So, while most of the story is in Ciara's P.O.V., there will be some sections that won't be. This chapter is going to be the first that switches P.O.V. And the first victim of that P.O.V. switch will be…**

 **Sasuke.**

 **How it works is that if I start a chapter with a designated P.O.V., then it means that there are going to be switches. If there is no specifically designated P.O.V., then it is Ciara's by default. Other people who are going to get P.O.V.s eventually are Naruto, Gaara, maybe Sakura, Itachi is a possibility a while later, Jiraya, and perhaps a few others, if the situation calls for it.**

 **It will mostly be used in cases where Ciara is unconscious, the characters are split up, or another character needs to give a different side to the story. And I will try to keep the characters as canon as possible. Though keep in mind that how they act now is not necessarily how they will act later.**

 **We also get a little outside perspective on Ciara's backstory, what little of it is known, anyway.**

 **Now, enjoy.**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

There's a commotion at the door, and I would recognize the ones making it any day. I glance over at the gathering group, and see Squad Seven, Squad Eight, and Squad Ten. All of our graduating class. Well, except for the three of us.

"Sasuke!" Ino squeals loudly as she drapes herself over him. "Boy, you have no idea how much I was hoping you'd show up here. I've missed those broody good looks of yours." Needless to say, Sasuke does not look pleased to have an over-excited fangirl hanging all over him. In fact, if he had any less self-control, he would probably slam her into a wall. And honestly, I wouldn't blame him in the slightest.

If looks could kill, he would have been named a serial killer a long time ago.

On the other hand, it makes for decent entertainment while we wait for the exam to start.

Sakura's veins start bulging in anger as she watches Ino act like a dog in heat. "Hey, you Porker, back off! He's mine!"

"Miss Forehead, they let you in? Still got those frown lines on your big Billboard Brow, I see."

"Leave my forehead out of it!" Sakura's forehead has always been a grand matter of teasing since before I even joined the academy. I'm not entirely sure how it started, but I'm not sure that I want to know.

Akito shakes his head. "I pity the poor guy. He gets all sorts of attention, and he doesn't want any of it. You'd think he had no interest in girls at all."

Hiro elbows him. "Hey, for all we know, he might not be into girls. Just think about what they'll say if that turns out to be true. Well, except for that accidental kiss with Naruto. That didn't seem to do much other than make him gag."

I roll my eyes. "Okay, to be fair, even I wouldn't want to kiss Naruto. Sure, he's my best friend, but there's no way in hell that I would ever want to. He's my best friend, which means that I know all of his dirty little secrets. Some of them literally being caked in mud, or covered in empty ramen cups."

Then, I notice that Shikamaru is chatting quietly with Naruto, and Choji is just snacking away on his potato chips. Honestly, that boy doesn't know what the words diet and exercise are. With his build and the amount of food that he eats, if he had a healthy workout schedule, he could be ripped.

"Well, well, what do you know, the whole gang's back together!" Kiba struts up with A shy, quiet Hinata, and a silent Shino in tow, along with his dog, Akamaru, lounging on his head. Then Kiba glances over at me, Akito and Hiro.

With a smile on my face, I wave over at them, and all nine of them can see that the final team from our graduation class is here. Four rookie teams fresh out of the academy. And frankly, I think we've got the best shot out of all of us. But, I'm still glad that the others are here, it's going to make everything a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

The tension in the group is just increasing by the second, and it's all over the stupidest things. A bug on the floor, that blond idiot hanging all over me, and Naruto flapping his gums with Shikamaru.

"Hey, you guys!" A stranger walks up, with silvery hair and a Leaf headband on his forehead. "You might wanna try keeping it down a little. I mean, no offense, but you're the rookies, right? Fresh out of the academy?" His expression grows serious. "I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it, this isn't a class field trip.

Ino's shrill voice rings in my ears. "Well who asked you!? Who are you!?"

The guy smiles. "I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But really, look around you, you've made quite an impression." He's right, we've gotten the attention of everyone in the room. And only three of the faces out there actually look friendly. Then, there's one group in particular with very harsh glares. "See those guys? They're from the Hidden Rain Village, they're very touchy, they all are. This exam makes everyone tense. And you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now." Then he scoffs. "You can't help it. I mean, how could you know how things work? You're just rookies. You remind me of myself a while back."

This guy rubs me the wrong way. And it would seem that Sakura feels the same. "Kabuto, is that your name?"

"Yeah." He watches her quizzically.

"This isn't the first time you've taken the exam?" Now that she mentions it, this guy is a lot older than us, and he looks more than a little comfortable here. Having been here before would explain that feeling.

"No, it's…" He winces a little. "My seventh." Okay, this guy obviously has some issues with the exam. "Well, they're held twice a year, so this will be my fourth year."

Sakura is unduly impressed. "Wow, a veteran. You must really be an expert by now."

He smiles rather abashedly. "Yeah, sort of."

"Cool!" Naruto grins. "You can give us all the inside tips!"

"Yeah, some expert. He's never passed." Shikamaru sighs, his cynical air coming back to the surface.

Kabuto chuckles shyly and rubs the back of his head. "Well, seventh time's the charm, that's what they say."

Shikamaru's face falls. "So I guess all those rumors about the exam being tough are true. Aw man, I knew this was gonna be a drag."

"Hang on, don't give up hope yet, maybe I can help you kids out a little." Kabuto reaches into his pouch, bringing out a huge stack of cards. "With my ninja info cards."

Sakura frowns. "What the heck are those?"

"It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra-encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years." He kneels down and places the cards on the floor. "I've got over two hundred of them. So, you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye, in fact, they appear blank." He places the top card and the ground and twirls it with his finger. "Don't want just anyone seeing this stuff."

"What are you doing?" Sakura leans over, looking down at the card.

"You see, I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets. Like this, for example." The card suddenly blooms with color, and there's a statistical map on it.

Ino grins. "Awesome, a map…of what?"

Kabuto nods. "It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who have come to take the Chunin Exam, what villages they come from, and how many from each village." Kabuto turns his eyes on us. "Why do you think they all come here to take the exam together at the same time?" He looks at us expectantly, but no one has an answer. "It's to foster friendship between nations, of course. International brotherhood and all that, and it's true enough as far as it goes."

Something still doesn't sit right with me. "But there's another reason…?"

He nods. "Yeah. You see, the important thing is that this way, they can regulate the total number of shinobi in each village, thereby maintaining the balance of power."

"Oh yeah, balance of power." Naruto frowns a little, but pretends to understand what's going on.

Shikamaru sighs. "Balance of power…big deal…it's all a drag."

The map on the card disappears under Kabuto's hand. "If the balance isn't maintained, one nation could wind up with many more shinobi than its neighbors. And it might be tempted to attack them. So, they try to maintain the status quo. Makes sense, I suppose." _That kind of thinking could lead to war._

Now, it's time to see if this guy can be of any real use. "Do those cards of your have any info on the candidates, individually?"

"They might?" He's dancing. "You have someone special in mind?"

I keep my mouth from twitching in irritation, focused on my goal. "I might."

"Well, I can't promise that my information is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone." He grins at us. "Including you guys, of course. So, which one is it? Tell me anything you know about them. A description, where they're from, whatever. Anything at all."

I already know who I want to ask about. "He's Gaara of the Desert. And there's Rock Lee of the Leaf Village, while you're at it." I have to know what their deal is, if I'm going to beat them in the exam. And I will beat them, no matter what.

Kabuto looks disappointed. "Man, that's no fun, you even know their names. That makes it easy." He swipes his hand over the pile, drawing out two cards. "Here they are."

"Show them to me." I need to know exactly who I'm up against.

Kabuto places one card on the ground. "Okay, first up is Rock Lee." He twirls the card, and Lee's face appears. "Looks like…he's a year older than you guys. Mission experience…eleven C-Ranks and twenty D-Ranks. His squad leader is Gai. In the last twelve months, his taijutsu has radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaky. Last year, he got a lot of attention as a genin, but for some reason, he chose not to participate in the Chunin Exam. This will be his first time as a candidate, same as you guys." So…he's a first time examinee…good to know. "His teammates are Tenten, and Neji Hyuga.

"Huh? Hyuga?" Naruto seems to have forgotten that the Hyuga are a clan, and a powerful one. Dobe.

"Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert." Kabuto puts down another card, twirling it and revealing the information encoded there. "Mission experience…eight C-Ranks…and get this, one B-Rank as a genin. There's not a lot more information on this guy. He was a rookie from another land, originally. But there is this…he's survived every mission without getting a scratch on him."

"He's done a B-Rank as a genin, and has never even been injured!?" Shikamaru's surprise is understandable. Even I'm having a hard time believing that he could get out of a mission like that without even a scratch.

Naruto shivers a bit. "What's the deal with this guy?"

 _So…this is what I'm up against, huh? But…_ "Actually, I've got one more person that I want to look at."

"Oh?" Kabuto looks up at me curiously. "And who might that be?"

I glance over towards the rest of the candidates, my eyes finding her immediately. "Ciara…Squad Twelve. She's from our graduating class."

"Hm?" Kabuto follows my line of sight, his eyes widening slightly. "Oh, her…" A smile creeps onto his face. "You've picked a good one…" He pulls another card out of the pile, holding it in front of his face. "Are you sure that you want to know? It might be a tough pill to swallow."

 _A tough pill to swallow?_ I grit my teeth and shake my head. "No, I want to know. Tell me what you know about her."

"Alright…" Kabuto puts down the card, twirling it with his chakra, and revealing her face. "Let's see…mission experience…six D-Ranks, seven C-Ranks, and one A-Rank that was supposed to be a C-Rank, originally."

I nod, knowing what that one was. "Our mission to the Land of Waves. She tagged along with us as a medic." And she was a lot more useful than I originally thought she would be. "What else?"

"Well, I suppose that you know that medical ninjutsu is a specialty of hers. She spends a lot of her off-duty time in the hospital. But I've seen her training while I roam through the village, and her regular ninjutsu skills are impressive as well. Usually, you reach jounin level before acquiring a second element type of ninjutsu, but she's already got two of them. Wind and fire. Her teammates are equally skilled in ninjutsu, however, her taijutsu skills are definitely lacking, and her small size doesn't help her there. Though that shouldn't be a surprise, since she's almost a year younger than you. Though, from what I saw earlier in the hallway, if she doesn't know any genjutsu yet, then her potential for it is very high. If she does know some, then she hasn't used it. But…there's a lot more to her than just that…" He's stalling a bit, like he's waiting for applause.

"And what else is there?" I want to know, I need to know. There's just so much about her that doesn't seem to add up.

Kabuto nods. "Because of the clan she belongs to, she's probably got blood ties to most of the major clans in the village. From the rumors I hear when I was a kid, they would apparently take spouses regardless of their clan of origin, or even lacking membership in a clan. Problem is, her clan is now nearly extinct, she's the only one left. Which is strange, considering that according to the history books, that clan predates the Leaf by centuries."

"What?" _Her clan is gone? But…how? When? I never even heard about this._ "Tell me...what happened?"

"No one knows." Kabuto shrugs. "Whatever happened, it's all kept top secret. All I know is that there's been no sighting of a Shiryugu anywhere in the last seven years. Not a single one, other than her. Which leads me to believe that they're all dead. Whether there was some kind of accident, or some kind of massacre…hundreds of people just disappeared overnight." Then he smirks a little. "It's ironic, though. Because, according to my sources, and I had to do a little digging of my own, she's from the main house, not one of the branches. She's the old clan leader's daughter, and the one and only heiress to the clan."

"No way!" Naruto's mouth drops open. "She's a what now!?"

I frown at Naruto. "Isn't she your best friend? Wouldn't you have been the first to know?" _Honestly, how stupid can this dobe be?_

He shoots me an angry glare. "Of course I would! So how is it that the glasses freak knows!?"

Kabuto coughs. "Anyway, what this means is that she's unpredictable. She might be hiding away all of her talents, and we wouldn't know until it was too late. Whatever that clan had, they kept locked up tight. I've never even heard about the location of their estate. So it's impossible to get even a clue into her true potential. All of these statistics are estimations, at best."

"I see." I stare down at the card. _Then she's someone else to keep an eye on. If I end up fighting her, it could be a fight for my life. And then…he said that she's probably got blood ties to most of the major clans. I wonder if that includes the Uchiha… But most importantly…how did he get his hands on this information if it's all kept so secret?_ Something here is fishy, and I don't like it.

Kabuto passes his hand over the card, and her information disappears as he takes out another one. "Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound. From the looks of it, they've all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to participate in the exams this time around. Of course, the Hidden Sound Village is small. It sprang up recently, no one knows anything about it. Those guys are a mystery." He puts the cards away, stacking them carefully. "Well, you get the idea. The competition's going to be intense this year."

"So it would seem." Hinata's voice comes out soft and quiet, as well as very worried. "It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence."

"It's a fine time to start talking like that!" Ino gets shrill and annoying in half a second.

Sakura, on the other hand, focuses on Kabuto. "Do…you think it's going to be tougher this time?"

"Oh yeah. In the four years I've been coming, I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this bunch." He sighs. "Yep, we've got our work cut out for us."

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

I should have expected trouble. There's no way that Naruto can go anywhere without starting something. But this is something that I never could have seen coming.

He turns to the crowd in the room, pointing out at all of them. All of us. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm gonna beat every one of ya! Believe it!"

I start laughing, and soon Akito and Hiro join me. Hiro waves over to Naruto. "Alright, then let's have a good competition here. The three of us are ready for whatever you can dish out."

The rest of the room glares at them, while the other rookies just shake their heads, and give a wide variety of exclamations and opinions. It's almost cute, except for the fact that they're all ragging on Naruto.

Sakura jumps forward, putting Naruto in a headlock. "Naruto, you idiot! You obnoxious little-" She swears and curses at him, until she remembers that she's got an audience. Then, she smiles nervously. "Oh, hey everyone, don't mind him. Sometimes he says these spazzy things, he doesn't really mean them, they just come out! He's got this condition, you know, bit of a psychological thing, he should be on medication." Then, she turns on Naruto. "You see what you've done, Naruto!? You've hurt everybody's feelings! They think you don't respect them, but that isn't true, is it, Naruto!?"

But then the three ninjas from the Sound Village make a move, and I twitch. "I'm going."

Akito nods. "Then go. We'll cover you." He's giving me the go ahead for interfering.

Using a burst of wind chakra, it's easy for me to move quickly across the room. Drawing out a couple of kunai, I throw them towards that guy who called himself Kabuto. They slam into the two kunai launched by one of the Sound ninja, pinning them to the wall.

Another of the Sound ninja comes in from close to the ground, aiming a simple punch at Kabuto. Though the effects are far from simple. I slap my hands over my ears as a high-pitched tone scrapes against the air. It's easily the most unpleasant thing I've ever heard. And it stops me in my tracks.

Even though Kabuto dodges the punch, and all seems well, his glasses shatter. "Oh, I get it, it was that kind of attack."

"Hang on, I saw it all." Sasuke protests. "He dodged the attack. How did that happen?"

"It must have come closer than it looked. "Shikamaru scoffs. "Look at him, acting like it was nothing, real tough guy."

With a gasp, Kabuto drops to the ground. As he coughs, blood starts to pour from his ears. And judging by the amount, I would say that Kabuto's eardrums have been shattered. That would also explain his severe lack of balance right now.

Naruto pales. "What…did he…just-?"

"Kabuto, what's wrong?" Sakura gets closer to him. "What is it?"

Seeing as there's someone hurt, I can't just sit still and leave it be. So I slip around the three Sound ninja, and head straight for Kabuto. Naruto and Sakura soon join me.

Naruto takes his right side. "Hey, Kabuto."

"Are you okay?" Sakura sits down to his left.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He tries to get up, but his balance is still shot.

I growl slightly. "You're not fine. You took a direct hit from that attack."

The one with the spiky black hair and yellowish clothes laughs. "Write this on your little card, punk. The genin from the Sound Village will be chunin when this is over. Guaranteed."

"Hmph, by teaming up on a single person, for no other reason than being bored?" I glare back at the Sound ninja. "I doubt that the examiners are going to look favorably at that."

"Oh yeah?" The sound ninja moves to punch me in the head, no mercy in his eyes. But because I have trust in the people closest to me, I don't move, I simply stay between them and Kabuto.

With perfect timing, Hiro appears next to me and grabs the ninja by the arm, keeping him locked in place. "Oh no you don't. Punching my teammate is off-limits." He squeezes the guy's arm, and it looks like his grip is almost strong enough to break bone.

Akito places himself between me and the other two sound ninja. "And now, this fight is over. Withdraw quietly please. Let's not make this into an even bigger scene than it already is…though it might be too late for that now."

"Alright, so what about you…you're bleeding from the ears, that's not good." I touch Kabuto's head and cringe, I have very little experience healing ears, so I can only do some temporary treatment. "Alright, I can do something for the pain and maybe your balance, but you're going to need to see a specialist, because I don't think I'll get everything." I may be a good healer, but there are some things, many things, in fact, that I just don't have the knowledge or experience to deal with yet.

Everyone looks astonished, and all the rookies look angrily at the leader of the sound ninja. But before anything else can happen, a jounin and a lot of chunin appear, including the two from earlier. And the one in the middle doesn't look happy. "Takara, what's going on here?"

Akito smiles grimly. "Just a little pre-exam tension that went a little too far, Sir. Don't worry, I think most of it has cooled now. Only one injury, and Ciara is doing her best to do what she can."

The man nods. "Very well Takara. Make sure this doesn't happen again, or you'll be getting all the archival duties for three months. Assuming you survive the exam."

"Of course, Sir." Akito nods at Hiro. "Let the Sound ninja go."

"Alright, but this is your call, not mine." Hiro releases the Sound ninja and backs up, towards me. "But if he goes after her again, I'll put him in the ground. You know, without blowing the roof off this place like she would."

I roll my eyes. "Thank you Hiro, but I don't plan to blow this place up."

"That's good to hear. Now, if the three of you are finished, and the rest of you could stand down, I'm going to start this exam." This guy has a foreboding aura all his own, and it puts me off just a little. I'm on edge, wary, and very suspicious of him.

Akito touches my shoulder gently. "He's part of the interrogation corps. He's the best there is when it comes to getting information out of unwilling sources. Ibiki Morino."

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

After that tussle with those Sound ninja, seeing her walk away with her two teammates, some of what Kabuto said is starting to make sense. I'd never actually thought about it before, but the way that she carries herself, with confidence and pride, reminds me of the way I was taught to behave. But instead of treating others like they're lower than herself, she just seems to hold herself to a higher standard than others, and takes pride in that alone.

In this moment, she looks every bit what a powerful clan heiress should. It's strange, and a little difficult to understand. But, with her on the list of people I'd like to fight, understanding who she is might just grant me a victory.

Because losing isn't an option.


	21. The First Exam

**Okay, so I went into this story with a fairly thorough outline of where I was going with this. And it's still very much there. But while I'm writing, the details just come to me and change things in way I never expected. But hey, I guess that happens when most people write, right?**

* * *

With the commotion over, Ibiki gets started. "Alright, you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!" Behind Ibiki are Izumo and Kotetsu. So that's why they're here… "It's time to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy."

I smirk at him. _Well, isn't he a scary one… I can see why Akito looks up to him._ My teammate's admiration for the man is fairly obvious, probably because he can command respect and fear at the same time.

He claims to be our enemy, but I would label him more an opponent. After all, if he were really the enemy, I would probably be trying to stick a kunai in him right now. Along with half of my ninjutsu arsenal. And I have a feeling that I wouldn't be alone.

His eyes fall onto me, his lip curling a little, before they flick over towards the Sound ninja. "I'll say this once, so listen up. There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking each other without the permission of your proctor. And even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?" The chunin behind him all start chuckling. "Now, if you're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin Exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return, you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you are all seated."

I raise an eyebrow. "A written test?"

Hiro frowns. "Not what I expected… I though that we'd be doing something a little more on the practical side."

"What do you want to bet that there's a catch?" Akito grins. "Ibiki is from the interrogation division, he likes to play mind games with the people he's interrogating. What do you think would happen if you gave him a room filled with genin?"

I understand what he's getting at. "Lots of young ninja for him to mess with. It'd probably be hilarious to him. Best entertainment of the year and all that."

"Exactly." Akito pushes me forwards gently. "Come on, let's get our numbers and sit down."

Making our way to the front of the room, I approach Izumo, who has a box in hand, and Kotetsu, who is holding a pile of registration papers. I smirk at the two of them. "Well, this explains why you were harassing genin earlier."

Kotetsu chuckles. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."

That earns him an eye roll from me as I reach into the number box. "Just keep your eyes where I can see them, and we'll get along just fine." I pull out the number, and turn towards the back of the room, worming my way through the crowd to find my seat.

As I sit down and make myself comfortable, a familiar face sits beside me. I glance at him and raise an eyebrow, so he holds up his number. "I sit here."

"Alright." It still amuses me a little, though what distracts me is his constant staring. "What, is there something on my face?"

Sasuke shakes his head, which ruffles his raven hair. "No, it's nothing."

"Doesn't seem like it…" But I let it drop my eyes turning to the front. "Good luck."

"You too." Considering how silent he usually is, I'm guessing that he's at least a little nervous, or perhaps anxious. Either way, he's been talking a bit more than he usually does.

Ibiki taps the board with some chalk. "Everyone, eyes front. There are a few rules you need to be aware of." And here's the catch. "And I won't answer any questions, so you'd better pay attention the first time around!" He starts writing on the board. "Okay, rule number one is this. The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So, if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

 _That's an intriguing way to start the test. So…if they're trying to weed us out and thin the crowd, what's to stop everyone from scoring enough to pass? This seems a little too easy…_

"Rule number two. Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members." That gets a few reactions from the crowd. I'm not worried, though. Akito and Hiro are both pretty smart in their own right, and I'm sure that I can pull off at least a few questions, especially if there's anything on biology in there.

"What!?" Sakura nearly shrieks. "Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored as a team!?"

"Silence!" Ibiki is brooking no dissent here. "I have my reasons. So shut up and listen!" He moves on to the next rule. "Rule number three. The sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."

I frown. _Hold up…what now? They're taking points off if we get caught cheating? Are they really expecting us to be desperate enough to cheat?_ I glance down at the back of my test. _And only two points, that's a whole four chances to get caught before dropping us to zero. It's like they're looking for…_ A pit opens up in my stomach. _It's like they're looking for bad cheating._

Ibiki continues. "Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp. And if you're caught five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored."

I clasp my hands together. _Okay, you're a ninja, so think about this like it's a mission. On a mission, a single mistake can get you killed. On the other hand, it may take a few minor mistakes before you make a big one. And out in the field, it's not as though we're expected to fight fair. In fact, fighting fair goes against everything a ninja does. We're supposed to take every advantage we can get, turn the tables in our favor. An idea takes root inside me. Sneak around badly, and you'll get caught and ambushed. But sneak around well, and you'll be the one doing the ambushing. If we cheat badly, we get thrown out. But…if we don't get caught…_ It works with the principles that we were taught at the academy. This is a test to see who can cheat without getting caught.

Ibiki confirms my suspicions. "Anyone caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be." Now it's starting to come together. "One more thing. If any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails."

Beside me, Sasuke looks panicked, and I think I know why. In these kinds of written tests, Naruto never does well. He never did well in any tests at the academy, but I think that it's because it was a more constrained environment. To bloom, he needs room to be creative and intuitive. He has to have the chance to think and react, and learn in the heat of battle. You never find any of that in a classroom at the academy.

Ibiki taps the board for attention again. "The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period." That means that there's a catch to the tenth question as well. This guy really loves his mind games. "You'll have one hour total." The clock hits three thirty. "Begin!"

I flip my test over, and scan over the questions. _Well, damn, that's a lot of math._ These are definitely not the kinds of questions that we had on our tests back at the academy. I stare at the piece of paper, at a bit of a loss as to how to answer the questions. _Well, at least Akito will be fine, he loves this stuff._

Then, there's a slight burning sensation in my stomach, and that ever so familiar voice rings in my head. _I will do this._

I frown at my paper, trying to keep my emotions concealed. _What are you talking about? You understand these questions?_

 _I do. I have been watching humans for many years. I have picked up on much of their scientific knowledge. If you will allow me to control your limbs, I will write this test for you._

Considering how hard these questions are, it would be foolish of me to turn down his help. _Okay, thank you._

 _Now, relax, as if you are about to go to sleep._ His voice is low, calm, and soothing, making it easy for me to let go and relax my body. _Good…_

The warmth engulfs me, and a strange feeling creeps through every cell in my body. I can't move an inch, but there's no malice in this presence. Then, my hand moves without my direction, and pulls my headband down slightly, and ruffles my bangs in front of my eyes, letting them hang down around my nose and cheeks. _What are you doing?_

He hums a little. _I would rather not tip anyone off to this change. By switching places, you now display my eyes, and certain markings around them. In the best case, it might arouses curiosity and suspicion, in the worst, it may cause some to panic or become frightened. Humans are often frightened by that which they do not understand._

I would nod, but right now, I can't move my body. _Okay, I understand._ Through his eyes, my eyes, I can see my hand, controlled by him, moving across the paper, filling in the first answer and decoding the message in the first question.

Minutes pass, and the little friend inside my brain, currently controlling my hands, fills in question after question. And I watch, learning a lot from how he's filling in the answers.

Then, comes the first disturbance, which Suzaku lets me look at out of the corner of my eye, right through a crack in my bangs. One of the sentinels throws a kunai at one of the other candidates, nailing his test paper to the desk. The guy stands up in a panic. "What the-? What was that all about?"

Kotetsu grins. "Five strikes and you're out. You just failed the test."

"What?" The guy is shaking. "It can't be."

Kotetsu points at him. "You and your teammates will leave the room immediately."

And just like that, the first team is eliminated. "Candidate number twenty-three, fail. Number twenty-seven and forty-three, fail."

After the first incident things start heating up. One by one, teams are eliminated, most of them putting up a fuss when they get kicked out. Though most of the fuss comes from the ones who stupidly allowed themselves to get caught. The teams eliminated are already in the double digits.

Suzaku puts down the pencil, all of the answers now present on the paper. _It would seem that some of your peers have begun to use their wits to collect information. The one from the Sand…he has an artificial eye in the sky. And the Uchiha has activated his Sharingan. Be careful in the next exam…_

His control recedes from my limbs, and when I regain complete control, I turn over my paper and sit back. _Done. I'm going to pass the first part of the exam._ I glance over to where my two teammates are located. _Good luck, boys. Don't let me down._

The clocks keeps ticking, counting down the time until Ibiki gives us the final question. But there's got to be a catch, otherwise it would have been given at the same time as the other questions. Of course, there's always the chance that he just held it back to make us nervous about it, but from the look on his face, I doubt that he would leave it at that.

With one last tick, we're at the forty-five minute mark. Fifteen minutes left, and Ibiki opens his mouth. "Alright, listen up! Here's the tenth and final question! But, before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of." The door creaks open, and that Sand ninja, Kankuro comes back in. Ibiki smirks. "Ah, made it just in time. I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening." I smirk. _Looks like someone's been busted._ "Well, take your seat."

Kankuro strides down the aisle, and I could swear that he drops something right next to his blond teammate. _That must be some kind of cheat sheet…but there's not much time left, so she'll have to be fast if she wants to make any use of it._

Once Kankuro is seated, Ibiki strides forward. "These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully, and try not to let them frighten you."

I've heard Akito talk a bit about this guy before, so I know better than to let him get under my skin. However, the same can't be said for several of the others. They look like they're going to wet themselves under his gaze. I've also got a soothing presence in my mind to keep me from becoming anxious.

"Very well, then, rule number one…each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision." His words nearly make me choke. _Hold on…what now?_ I narrow my eyes at him. _And I wonder how fast he'll throw us out if we don't answer it…_

The girl from the Sand bursts out in a panic. "Whoa, so what's the catch!? Let's say we decide we don't wanna do it. What happens then?"

"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And of course, that meas both your teammates fail as well." That's quite the catch he's throwing at us. It means that this is the make or break question, and passing depends on answering it.

Sasuke shifts beside me, it almost looks like his nerves are fraying. So I nudge him a little. "You worried about Sakura and Naruto?"

He glances at me. "Naruto was at a disadvantage in this test from the start. I don't know if he'll be able to get this question right."

A smile curls my lips. "If I were you, I wouldn't be so quick to underestimate Naruto. He'll surprise you when you least expect it."

Ibiki shakes his head. "You didn't let me finish." Now, it sounds rather ominous. "If you do accept the tenth question, and answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail…you will be barred from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!"

The whole room is stunned, until Kiba stands up with an outburst. "Hey! That's bull, man, that's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that!? There's lots of people here who've taken the test before!"

Ibiki laughs. "I guess you're just unlucky." His face is one that could haunt even my dreams. "I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now. Of course, if you don't wanna take it, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year."

I clasp my hands together. _So, in order to pass, we have to answer the question right. Answer it wrong, and we'll never get another chance. Or, back out now and try again later._ I muse over the choices, looking at it from the point of view of a shinobi on a mission.

Then, I glance over to Hiro and Akito, catching both of them in my line of sight. They return the glance, determination etched into the lines of their faces. _Well, seems like they've made up their minds already. And it's not like it's the end of the world if we fail. Hiro already helps out at the academy, and Ibiki seems to be fond of Akito, so I doubt that he'll waste Akito's potential on the off-chance that he gets the question wrong. And of course, I could always appeal to Gramps if something happens. Low rank or not, I know that he won't want to waste my potential. And if there's really nothing that can be done, then I can just go on low level missions and spend the rest of my time working at the hospital._

It's a tough decision, but I think I've got my answer. This is the real world, and in the real world, there are no do-overs. We just have to do our best, stack the odds in our favor, and do whatever we can to survive. If this were a mission, there would be no backing out. Even if it kills us, you can't just up and quit in the middle, it's a fast way to get cut down from behind.

Ibiki stares out into the crowd. "Now then, if you're ready…the tenth and final question. Those who don't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded, and then you're free to go."

The first hand goes up, and a team is eliminated. After that, it's just one team after another, thinning out the herd even more. And while I'm glad to have less competition, I'm still a little worried about Naruto's nerves. I know that his dream is to be Hokage. But somehow, I feel like impossible isn't a word with him. So even if he fails the question, he'll never give up on that dream.

Then, surprisingly, Naruto raises his hand. I raise an eyebrow, and see Sasuke glance at me out of the corner of my eye. "Naruto…what are you doing?" I wasn't expecting him to actually throw in the towel. Maybe shake a little, but not give up.

But, much quicker than his hand goes up, it comes right back down as he slams it on the desk and stands up. "Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, you guys aren't going to scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life." He slams his other hand down as well. "I'll still be Hokage someday!"

As Naruto takes a breath, I start laughing my head off. Naruto turns in the direction of my voice, so I sit up straight and stare right at him. "Way to preach it, Naruto." I hold my fist towards him, and he grins back at me, holding his fist in the air as well. "Never give up and never give in. Because sometimes, there are things worth risking everything for."

Ibiki pretends to be unimpressed. "This decision is one that could change your life. If, for any reason, you would rather quit, nows your last chance."

Naruto stares at Ibiki. "No way, I never go back on my word. That's my way of the ninja."

Hearing him makes me smile, and it would seem that I'm not the only one. No more hands go up, and Hiro smirks. "Well, I think that this is settled. You're not scaring anyone else with that speech." His smirk widens and reaches his eyes. "Maybe Akito's given you a soft spot."

Ibiki's eyes flick to Hiro, then to Akito, then to me. "Well, isn't your team full of cheek."

"Of course, you'd get bored if we weren't." I stifle a laugh as I see Ibiki's eye twitch ever so slightly. _Looks like this is going to be fun._ "So, we gonna sit here all day, or wrap this up? Because Hiro's right, it looks like no one else is leaving."

He looks around the room, nodding to the sentinels, before turning back to us. "Well then, I admire your determination, if nothing else. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do. And that's for me to tell you…that you've all passed the first exam."

Everything in the room freezes for a moment, and I cover my mouth with my hand to keep in my laughter. _Oh gods…it was a trick question! Of course it was a trick question!_ It makes so much sense, especially coming from an interrogator who specializes in mental torture.

Sakura gets to her feet. "Hold on, what just happened? What do you mean we passed!? Where's the tenth question!?"

A wide grin splits Ibiki's face, a very pleasant one, and he laughs. "There never was one, not a written one at least. Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second!" The girl from the Sand takes issue with that. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time, is that what you're saying?"

"No, no, not at all." Ibiki's tone and disposition have become much lighter now. "Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To test your ability to surreptitiously gather intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh…well that clears up everything." She sounds unconvinced, and there seems to be an implied eye roll in her tone.

Ibiki nods. "Let me explain. You see, my objective was not only to test you only as individuals, but as a team, and how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis. O you'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your teammates. I wanted to see how you'd handle the pressure."

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that, that's why I kept my cool." Naruto acts like he had a clue what was going on, but honestly, I doubt it. I mean, I love Naruto to little bits and pieces, always have, and probably always will, though I'd rather keep my best friend in one piece, not many. But I have to admit that he's not always the sharpest tool in the shed. The chances of him actually having figured out what was really going on are slim. That said, I still had some faith that his instincts and emotions would lead him down the right path, and it would seem that I was correct.

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any genin to be expected to be able to solve. I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion, that you'd have to cheat to have any chance of passing." And so his motives are revealed. "In fact, the test was designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it. Of course, it would have done you little good, unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two chunin who already knew the answers, and had them sit in with you.

Naruto freaks out, then sits himself back down. "Oh, come on, I wasn't fooled for a second. You have to be a complete doofus not to see it."

I sweatdrop a little, and Sasuke shakes his head. "I don't understand how you can possibly be that idiot's best friend."

Sighing, I shake my head. "That…is a very long story. Needless to say, in our little pair, I'm definitely the brains, no contest." Then, I smile gently at my dumb blond. "But…he's got a kind heart, and a determination that's downright inspirational, as I'm sure you've seen."

"Hn." Sasuke turns away, focusing back on Ibiki.

"Those who were caught at it, failed. Better not to cheat, than to cheat clumsily." He removes his headband bandana, revealing a terribly scarred and mutilated scalp. Punctured, sliced, burned, and completely hairless. "Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine whether the mission's a failure or success. There'll be times you have to risk your life to get it."

Sasuke cringes. "Man, what a mess…scars and puncture wounds…burn marks…what he must have endured…"

I stare for a moment, then drop my gaze. "And it looks like it took too long to treat him. Wounds like that can be healed without much scarring if treated right away…" It actually disgusts me. Not the scars, but the fact that no treatment could be given, or was given, to prevent them. The kind of pain involved in that, especially if the wounds festered, would have been immense, even for someone with a high pain threshold.

Ibiki ties his bandana back on his head. "Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind. Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades, or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence, cheat in order to survive. And that's why those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out, leaving the rest of you."

"Okay…? But I'm still not getting what the tenth question thing was about." I suppose that I shouldn't hold it against the Sand girl to not know how things work with Ibiki. Even I've only heard a few stories from Akito about the man.

"You're not?" Ibiki frowns. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. Surely you see that."

Sakura looks up. "Sure, but explain it anyway."

Ibiki sighs. "AS I said before, the gal was not only to test you as individuals, but as part of a final question gave you two choices, both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant both you and your teammates would be failed. Or, you could try and answer it, knowing if you got it wrong, you would lose your chance at ever being chunin. It was a no-win situation. But, just the sort chunin have to face almost every single day. For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission. To steal a document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has, or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you have reason to believe the enemy expects you, that you might very well be walking blindly into a trap."

That's quite the hypothetical situation. And for some reason, I get the feeling that this was an actual mission that he himself remembers. The way he talks about it is so fluid and cohesive, that it seems very real.

"Now, do you have the option of taking a pass on this insane mission, of saying 'My comrades and I would rather live to fight another say'? Can you choose to avoid danger?" These are all rhetorical questions. "No. There will be many missions that seem almost suicidal , if you think about it. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal, and of achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a chunin squad leader. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those whose determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades' lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor will never be able to call themselves chunin. At least, as long as I'm here." Now, everything he's done makes so much more sense. "As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I put to you. You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the Chunin Selection Exam completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

As Naruto starts celebrating, I turn to Sasuke with a smug grin. "Well, it looks like Naruto's attitude is what carried him through this, along with many others, huh?"

Sasuke smirks wryly. "Yeah…guess the idiot is good for something."

I roll my eyes. "He's good for a lot more than just that, and you know it."

The moment Sasuke moves to retort, something catches my eye out the window, and as my eyes narrow, Sasuke looks over as well. "What's that?"

"Dunno…" I squint a little, then my eyes widen. "Oh shit."

The window shatters, and a woman flies inside, pinning a tarp to the ceiling with a pair of kunai, obscuring Ibiki from view. "Heads up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi! Ready for the second test?" She pumps her fist into the air. "Good! Let's go! Follow me!" She's very…flamboyant, or maybe just loud. She kind of reminds me of Naruto, just less smiley, and with more flair for dramatic entrances.

I groan lightly. "And you guys thought that our entrance in the fight with Zabuza was bad…"

Sasuke sweatdrops. "No kidding…who is she?"

Ibiki appears around the corner of the tarp. "You're early, again."

It only takes those few words to put her fire right out. Then, she gets a good look at us. "How many are there? Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy, you must be getting soft."

Ibiki is unperturbed. "Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year."

"Hm…they sure don't look it." Her eyes flick over the crowd. "Trust me, before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated. This is gonna be fun…" Then, she puts her stern face back on. "Alright, you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where to meet me." She smiles slightly. "Dismissed."

My eye twitches a little at this new proctor. "If this is Gramps' idea of a joke, it's not funny. At this rate, we're all going to be offed by some weird proctor."

"Hn…" Sasuke glances at me once, his eyes narrowing in suspicion for a brief moment. Then, he stands up and walks over towards Naruto and Sakura.

It looks like this exam really is going to be pretty interesting…


	22. The Second Exam

**So, this is the place where Canon starts to…take a backseat. I mean, everything up to this point is still canon and all, but…the teams are all split up during the exam, so of course the fights are going to be different on Ciara's end. And…it's not going to be pleasant for the most part. Then again, when is the Chunin Exam ever pleasant?**

 **This took a lot longer than I expected, I've just been so wiped over the last few days that it's been hard to write. Also, it's been hard to find time away from my siblings so that I can write in peace without them questioning and judging what I'm doing. Though, on the other hand, I've been working on the next few chapters as well, so it's not like I've been sitting around, doing nothing but cleaning.**

* * *

When I look at my clock after waking up, it's already past eleven. That causes me to frown. _Neither of them are here to wake me up yet?_ As though waiting for me to think exactly that, there's a sharp knock on my door. _Of course…_

Rolling out of bed, I run my fingers through my hair, flattening it a little. It's grown a couple of inches since graduation, but I suppose that the rate my hair grows is just another thing I inherited from my dad. I got his hair, his eyes, the shape of his mouth, while I got the color of my mother's lips, her nose, and her face shape. My ever so lightly tanned skin, I also got from my father. Though the one thing I hate, is that my eyes aren't the deep, sparkling emerald that his were, more of a dull forest green. They, along with my dulled version of my father's brown hair, are part of the reason I got teased back at the academy. It makes me wish that I were as pretty as he was.

Glancing at the door, I roll my eyes. "I'll be out in a minute, just let me get dressed!"

"Just wanted to let you know that the meeting place is the forty-fourth training ground! Exam starts at two-thirty!" That's Hiro on the other side of the door. "Akito and I are going on ahead, and we've got lunch all ready to go!"

"Alright!" I guess that means that they're planning a picnic for us before the second part of the exam.

Reaching for my freshly washed clothes, I switch my pajamas for them, straightening out the blue capri before wrapping my belts around my hips. I slide the matching tanto into the loops, before adding my medical and weapons kits to my belts. Sure, the whole setup weighs nearly a quarter of my body weight, but to be fair, I doubt that I weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet.

Ready to go, I leave my small, comfortable apartment behind. I have no idea what's in store for us today, but there's no way that I'm going to let it get the better of me, no matter what it turns out to be.

* * *

I arrive at the training ground about twenty minutes later. It's quite a distance from my house, so even at a pretty fast pace, it still isn't just a hop skip and boat ride away. And the reason that it's so far away becomes clear when I get close. The place is enormous. There's no way that it would be able to fit any closer to the center of the city. And that's saying something, considering that the Leaf must be about sixty kilometers across at its widest.

And that's not counting everything on the outskirts.

There's almost no one around, just a couple of teams who decided to get here early, and a few chunin who, I assume, are here to help with the exam. Of course, there's still a few hours before the exam is supposed to start, so it's no wonder that there's barely anyone here.

I spot Hiro and Akito, along with Yuki-Sensei, all sitting on a picnic blanket. They've even got a basket, and it looks like they're unloading food. _Looks like they're prepared…they brought enough to feed an army._

Akito spots me and waves me over, so I follow his gestures and join them on the blanket. "So…we're here for a team picnic before we head…" I glance at the training ground, and it looks rather ominous. "Either into a battle, or some kind of survival test?"

Yuki-Sensei nods. "I don't know the details, but it seems that you'll be going in there for your next test. It's one of our most dangerous training grounds, so I want the three of you to be extra careful, and look after each other." She turns to the boys. "That means that you two have to do your best to make sure that Ciara isn't hurt." Then, she turns to me. "And if either of them are injured, you have to be sure to tend to them."

"Yes, Sensei." Though it should already be a given that I'll tend to them. There's no way that I'm going to let either of my teammates go down when I have the power to prevent it.

As we finish scarfing down whatever we can fit into our stomachs, the other teams go ahead and start showing up. They look apprehensive, to say the least, but I suppose that it's only to be expected, since the training ground in front of us is hardly an inviting vacation spot. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I can hear some wild animals chattering and roaring somewhere in there.

That can't possibly be a good thing.

* * *

Squad Seven, of course, just has to make an entrance. Naruto, with his hyperactive mouth, is yelling something incoherent, probably about how excited he is for the second part of the exam. That is…until he gets a good look at what's in front of us. Naruto gulps. "Whoa…what is this place?"

Anko smirks at us. "This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's the forty-fourth battle training zone. But we call it the Forest of Death."

I sweatdrop. "Nice name…" I gaze at the imposing looking forest, wondering exactly what it contains within its depths. Then, my eyes drop to the ground as a square, rock patterned box shuffles past me. "Uh…" I watch as it shuffles towards Naruto. "That…had better not be who I think it is…"

Naruto notices it, and his eye twitches. So, he moves over in an effort to get away from the box. However, the contents move after him, increasing in speed as he does.

Akito raises an eyebrow. "Now what's going on there…?"

I sigh and shake my head. "If I had to guess, I'd say that it's my little cousin. For some reason, he's been following Naruto around ever since graduation."

"Your cousin?" Hiro looks at me quizzically. "You know, you've never mentioned any of your relatives…"

That comment sobers up my previously happy mood. "They're not really something that I like to talk about." My eyes continue to follow around the box. "But…Konohamaru's mother was one of my aunts on my mother's side. My family tree is huge…enormous, actually. But…" I bite my lip and shake my head. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Konohamaru has no idea, so I'm not going to bring it up."

Akito pats me on the shoulder. "And we won't bring it up either, if its something you don't want to talk about. We'll wait until you're ready to tell us, no matter how long that takes."

I look up at him gratefully and lean into his touch. "Thanks…" _I just hope that whenever they find out about me…they won't hate me._

Then Akito frowns. "But…if Konohamaru s your cousin, then doesn't that make you related to Lord Hokage?"

I groan and sink my face into my arms. "By marriage, not blood. Though, I'm not sure whether to be proud of that, or mortified." I know full well what happens when Naruto hits the old man with his sexy jutsu. "But yeah…that's why I always call him Gramps. Great-Uncle is more like it, but Gramps just seems to fit him better. Anyway…I'm gonna drop this now." And thankfully, Akito drops it as soon as I do.

I lift my head up as the chase finally comes to a stop and Naruto confronts the box. "That's the worst disguise of all time! There's no such thing as square rocks, it's completely obvious!"

"You saw through my camouflage again! You're slick, boss. Just what I'd expect from my greatest rival!" The box lights up, and I cringe a little. _Oh…this is not going to end well…_

Three small blasts go off, and blue, yellow, and pink smoke rise into the sky, accompanied by three bouts of coughing. As the smoke dissipates to reveal Konohamaru and his two little friends, he nearly hacks up a lung. "I think we used a little too much gunpowder, guys."

The girl is the first to get up, spinning and posing. "I'm Moegi, the sexiest kunoichi in preschool! Check me out!"

The boy with the glasses is up next. "I love algebra! Call me Udon!" And he's got an even weirder, though less flamboyant pose than the girl, Moegi.

"And I'm the number one ninja in the village! Konohamaru! And when we're all together, we're the Konohamaru Ninja Squad!" The little brat has definitely grown an ego to match Naruto's, I'll give him that. Well, the ego that Naruto portrays to cover up all of his insecurities.

Naruto puts his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I knew it was you guys the whole time. What do you losers want? I'm getting ready to take the second phase of the Chunin Exam, and you're interrupting me. I don't have any time to be playing around with you guys now."

"We didn't come to play around, Boss! We're on official business." I shudder to think what Konohamaru means by official business.

Moegi nods. "Yeah, that's right! We came here for an exclusive interview!"

"And interview, huh?" Despite his earlier attitude, that's enough to pique Naruto's interest.

Konohamaru jumps on the moment of silence. "We're here on assignment to write an article for the academy's newspaper! It's a big-time feature story all about the Chunin Selection Examination.

"So that's why we want to do an exclusive interview with you." Moegi turns on the charm, acting all small and cute, with a bright pink blush on her cheeks. If she's trying to charm Naruto into giving them what they want, she's definitely on the right track. "Please tell us you're going to do it!"

Udon bows. "It would mean a lot."

"Yeah…" Naruto lowers his arms. "But right now?"

Finally, Anko takes her head out of her dumpling long enough to notice what's going on. "Hey, you over there! What are you doing? You're holding up the exam."

Naruto looks at her apologetically. "Sorry, Konohamaru was telling me something about an interview for the academy newspaper."

Anko gasps, then smiles abashedly. "Oh, yeah, I forgot all about it! Lord Hokage had mentioned something about them interviewing me." She ignores Naruto's confusion and addresses the crowd. "Alright, we're taking a ten minute break! For those that are scheduled to be interviewed, please be courteous and respectful to the reporters from the academy newspaper.

Naruto blinks in confusion. "I thought I was the only one being interviewed."

"No, but you are the most important!" Konohamaru shuffles around in a bag for a notepad and pen, holding them up as he grins at Naruto.

"Oh, in that case…" Naruto grins. "I'll give you an interview that'll make it clear to your readers why I'm the greatest ninja ever!"

"Oh boy…" Exasperation wafts from me in waves as I watch Konohamaru drag Naruto off for that interview. "I get the feeling that things aren't quite going to work out as well as Naruto hopes."

"Well, at least they're enthusiastic." Akito snickers, and hands me a leftover cupcake. "Come on, we don't have much time left, so you should finish eating before we get in there. We have no idea how long we'll be in there, so it's better to go in with a full stomach."

"Yeah…" I take the cupcake and unwrap it. I take a bite and let the sugar fill my mouth. I love sugary foods, always have. Which means that when I get my hands on them, it's impossible to get them away from me. Well, that, and sour fruit. Lemons, oranges, cherries, plums, and wild raspberries are among my favorites, but peaches make the top of the list.

* * *

Not long after Naruto returns from his interview with Konohamaru, do the last of the teams arrive for the second part of the Chunin Exam. Since it's time for us to go to the others, Yuki-Sensei packs up the rest of the picnic, before disappearing with nothing but a smile on her face.

With our very long and social lunch over, the three of us head over to where the other teams have gathered. Once near Naruto, I hear Sakura's wavering voice. "This place just completely creeps me out."

Anko smirks. "It should, we call it the Forest of Death. And soon enough, you're gonna find out why."

Naruto doesn't take that well. He puts his hands on his hips, wiggles his butt, and drops his voice into a snarky drawl. "We call it the Forest of Death. And soon, you're gonna find out why." Then, he drops the drawl and proclaims a challenge. "Do your worst! You're not gonna scare me away! I can handle anything!"

A freakishly calm smile crosses Anko's face, signaling doom. "So, looks like we got ourselves a tough guy." And it takes only an instant for her to throw a kunai past Naruto's cheek, slicing it open. Then, she disappears, reappearing behind Naruto. "You tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid, are you?" Cradling his cheek in her hand, she runs her fingers along it, collecting up the blood. "Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest."

A shiver goes down my spine, but it has nothing to do with Anko. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a ninja moving, their headband indicating that they're from the Hidden Grass Village. Though to be honest, I'm not entirely sure if it's a man or a woman. Especially with an inhumanly long tongue wrapped around a kunai, the kunai that Anko threw earlier, as they come closer to where Anko stands.

Anko seems to sense the approaching danger, or possibly not danger, since it would be rather foolish for any genin here to try and take on one of their proctors. She grabs a new kunai and starts to spin around, still holding Naruto. But then, the ninja is right over her shoulder, tongue extending to offer the kunai. "I…was jut returning your knife."

The tension does not leave Anko's body. "Why thank you, Grass Ninja." Anko's mouth twitches. "You know, I only really recommend you stand this close behind me if you wish to reach a premature end." Now, personally, I wouldn't touch a kunai that someone had slobbered all over, especially someone I don't know. But apparently, Anko has no particular problem with that, as she takes the kunai from the ninja's tongue.

The Grass ninja retracts that freakishly long tongue quickly. "My pardon. With the sight of blood, and your blade slicing through my hair, I'm afraid I had just become a little excited. I meant you no harm."

It's not the voice that does it, but the underlying tones in the Grass ninja's speech. They make me quite nervous. "That's…creepy."

"Yeah…" Akito glances at the ninja, though the piercing quality to his eyes means that he's analyzing…her, I think. The voice is that of a woman's, and the long hair could indicate a female, though the flat chest and long proportions could just as easily indicate a man as a woman.

"Likewise…" Anko watches rather suspiciously as the Grass ninja retreats back towards the other two from that village.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on through Naruto's head, but it would seem that the Grass ninja gave him a few too many ideas. Because he's sticking his tongue out like a lunatic, wiggling it around for some purpose. Then again, it's not like he's a snake, there's only so much that a regular person can do with their tongue. That Grass ninja obviously not falling into the category of regular person.

"Seems like everyone here today is quick-tempered, there must be something in the air." I'm not sure what Anko is referring to, but I know what's in the air. Tension, stress, anxiety, excitement. It's the second part of the Chunin Exams, so I'd be surprised if no one was at least a little jumpy. Then, she smirks. "This is gonna be fun."

I glance over at Naruto, who is rubbing his cut cheek irritably. _Jeez…seems like we got all the weird proctors this time around. Otherwise, I imagine that there would have been a boatload of complaints about them before. That, or no one cares about a bunch of genin being unduly terrorized during the exams. These tests look hard enough, we don't need our proctors complicating things with their weird personalities._

Anko walks back towards the fence, turning to face us with a grin on her face. "Now, before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all." She takes a stack of papers from her jacket. "It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form, and then sign it."

"What for?" Naruto has probably never signed a consent form in his life, so it doesn't surprise me that he would be confused.

"Some of you may not come back from this test, and I have to get your consent to that risk." She starts laughing a bit. "Otherwise, it would be my responsibility."

I glance at Akito and Hiro. But before I can open my mouth, Akito beats me to the punch. "Are you sure that you want to do this? We could die in there. If you don't want to do this, Hiro and I won't hold it against you."

A smirk grows on my face. "I was just about to ask you that. I'm not afraid of whatever is in that place, but if you guys don't want to do this, I'll understand."

Hiro pats me on the head and grins. "No way are you getting rid of us that easy."

"Then we're agreed." I look back at Anko. "Guess we're signing."

"Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing in this test. Here, hand these out." Anko passes the papers to Naruto, then raises her voice. "Now, the first thing you need to know is that this test will tax every one of your survival skills." She unrolls a scroll with a map on it. "First, I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field. The forty fourth battle training zone has forty-four locked entrance gates. There are rivers and a forest inside. In the center is a locked tower, located ten kilometers from each gate. It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of anything goes battle, to get your hands on these scrolls." She reaches into her jacket, exchanging the map scroll for two new scrolls, one white and one black, with the signs for heaven and earth on them.

"Both of them?" Sasuke's eyes flick to the scrolls suspiciously.

"Yes." She holds them out for better viewing. "You'll be fighting to get both a heaven scroll, and an earth scroll." That seems simple enough. "Altogether, twenty six teams will be taking part in this test. So, half of those teams will be going after the heaven scroll, and the other half will be trying to get the earth scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team, and that's what you'll be vying for."

It makes sense immediately. With twenty six teams, there will be thirteen complete sets of scrolls, so a maximum of thirteen teams can move on to the next round. Obviously, there will be another round after this, since thirteen teams still seems like way too many people to promote to chunin. Of course, that's not accounting for any scrolls that might get lost or destroyed, which, in this survival test, is more than likely. Three papers make their way into my hands, so I pass two of them to my teammates, my eyes flicking over the words in front of me.

Sasuke twitches a little, drawing my attention back to the conversation at hand. "Okay, so how do we pass the test?"

"Your squad must bring both a heaven and an earth scroll to the tower." That rule seems simple enough.

And the implications quickly sink into Sakura. "That means at the very best, half of us will fail. More, if not every team is able to get both the scrolls."

Anko shrugs. "No one ever said it would be easy. Oh, and one more thing, the test has a time limit. You must finish it within five days."

Ino squeaks. "Five days out there!?"

"What are we supposed to do for food!?" Chouji is, of course, the one to bring up food. He couldn't stop stuffing his face for five minutes.

Anko blinks. "Just look around, the forest is full of things to eat. There's plenty to feed all of you.

"Yeah…but, that's not all the forest has plenty of." Kabuto smiles nervously. "There are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."

"Aw man…" Chouji groans loudly.

"Quiet down!" Ino turns on her teammate. "This is why they call it survival, you know."

"That means, with these circumstances, there's no way half the teams will pass the test." That Hyuga's observation is a good one. And the longer we're out there, the lower our chances of passing.

His teammate nods. "With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter. So we will have less time to sleep, and less time to recover." He grins quickly. "It is a challenge indeed!"

Sasuke's eyes darken a little. "Completely surrounded by enemies. There won't be time to rest, we'll have to keep a constant watch." He's right, to an extent. But I'm not planning on taking long enough to need to keep watch overnight.

"Right." Anko nods. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test, and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."

Shikamaru raises his hand. "So, let's say mid-exam…can we quit?"

Anko stares at him like he's nuts or something. "Of course not! In the middle of a battle, you can't say 'sorry, I quit'. Well, I guess you could, but it's probably gonna get you killed."

"Oh, just great…" Shikamaru groans. "This is gonna be a drag."

"There are also some ways you can get disqualified." Anko's just thrown a wrench into the works. "The first is simple. If all three members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days." The first one makes perfect sense, though it's more a fail than a disqualification. "Number two, if a team loses a member, or a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue." My team has an edge there, since I can function as a decent medic. "But most important, none of you, absolutely none of you may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower."

Naruto shifts. "What if it just happens to flop open and you read it?"

Anko grins. "Let me put it to you this way, young man. You. Don't. Want. To. Know." That response hardly pleases Naruto. "There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule is to test your integrity." She nods. "Okay, we're done. Each team, take your consent forms and take them over there for your scrolls. After that, each team picks a gate, and you'll be led inside." Then she sighs. "Oh, and I have one more word of advice. Just don't die!"

I glance down at the paper in my hands, reading it over one last time. "Alright then, let's go."

The teams split up, and as the ones working the desk draw the curtains for secrecy, my team heads over to hand in our forms. Just in time, one of the guys peeks out of the curtain. "Alright, everyone, we're going to start handing out scrolls."

I nod, holding my consent form in my hand. "Then take us first, I want to get this started as soon as possible."

The man nods, and holds the curtain open for the three of us, concealing us inside. Then, he holds out his hand. "Your forms, please." I hand mine in first, followed by Hiro and Akito. "Very well." He reaches over the the desk, pulling out a dark scroll. "Here is your scroll, conceal it carefully."

I nod, then hold it towards Akito and Hiro. "So, who's carrying it?"

The two of them share a look, then nod. "You." Their voices are quiet, since they obviously don't want to risk being overheard.

I blink quickly. "Me?"

"Yeah." Akito points to my medical bag. "You can hide it in there and no one should be able to find it. Besides, we're bigger than you, so they'll be expecting one of us to be carrying it. And you're pretty good at escaping, so if something happens and we need to protect the scroll, you're the best one to carry it."

I can see his point, so I unhook my medical bag, open it, and shove the scroll deep inside. "There, it's hidden. They'll have to shift through my poison collection in order to get to it now."

"Good." Hiro pats me on the head. "Now, let's get to gate thirteen. I like that number, so let's hope that it brings us luck, okay?"

It sounds good to me, making luck out of an unlucky number. "Okay."

One of the ninja at the desk nods, before speaking into a small radio. "One team to gate thirteen."

The trek to gate thirteen is long and boring. But as soon as the clock hits two-thirty, it's time to spring into action. The gates spring open, and we're allowed into the Forest of Death.

The second part of the Chunin Exam has begun.

* * *

 **So, a nice little chapter there, which isn't really so little. Next up it's going to be them running through the forest, trying to complete the exam as fast as they can.**

 **Anyway, I'm still deciding on which of the last chapters of the manga I'll be taking as canon, because honestly, I still feel like that ending left a lot to be desired (and a lot that seemed rather out of the blue, with no reasonable explanation, like Naruto switching his type from loud and pushy girls to sweet and quiet ones, Sasuke falling for Sakura's Florence Nightingale thing in the hospital, and Gaara seemingly not hooking up with anyone even though he craves connections, acceptance, and love).**

 **Oh, and the character designs took a major dive for the most part after that point, which is just another reason I don't like the last movie and chapter. Anyway, that's just my opinion. But I'm thinking…698, maybe adapting part of 699 for my own purposes? But anyway, that's a long time in the future, so there's not much point in worrying about it now (even though I've got pretty much everything already mapped out, and it would be nice to get opinions on it so that whatever I decide can get some foreshadowing). That should help me to make up my mind so that I can solidify character relationships, since I'm still wavering on pairings.**

 **So many to choose from…and so many that would work so well…**

 **In the meantime, I'll make some notes on the possible pairings, and figure out the ups and downs to each one. So, while I don't like the idea of demanding reviews, like some writers do, any and all feedback that you can give me would be nice. Oh, and it'll be motivational too.**


	23. Into the Forest of Death

**So, while this "fight" in the chunin exam's second part is going to leave a lot to be desired, keep in mind that this stage is also about weeding out the weak. After all, there's a reason that less than half of the teams made it to the end. They just happened to catch a weak team, and remembered that they're ninja, therefore, they don't have to fight fair. So, the fight is basically over before it even begins.**

 **But don't worry, the fights in the preliminaries, and especially the finals are going to give this team a lot more of the spotlight that they deserve.**

 **And next chapter...is going to be something of a reveal.**

* * *

The three of us race through the trees, our eyes peeled for any other teams that we might come across. With the forty four entrances to this place, over half of them are being used by the various teams participating in this round. That means that we've got at least two teams close by. If we can find either of them, or better yet, both, then we should have a pretty good chance of getting ourselves a heaven scroll.

None of us are specifically sensor types, at least, we're not trained to be, but Akito has some pretty sharp instincts when it comes to other people's presence. Much sharper than mine, at the moment, though I can faintly sense the chakra of the people around me. His eyes flick around, peering through the trees. "So far, so good. We're in the clear, for now."

My mind drifts to my medical bag, where the scroll is well concealed inside. "So, how fast do you guys think we can get this exam done? They gave us five days in here, but do you really think it'll take us that long?"

Hiro frowns. "Our team, no. We've taken plenty of wilderness missions, so we know how to cope with rough terrain around here. We've also got pretty good teamwork, which we can definitely turn to our advantage. Plus, I'm fairly sure that we're more powerful than a lot of the other genin teams. They've got no idea what to expect from us."

That's a pretty fair assessment. Overall, I'd say that we've got more skill and power built up than the other rookie teams, not counting for the extra passengers that me and Naruto are hauling around. Not only that, but after the little incident just before the written test, I'm sure that the other teams are going to at least be wary of us. The boys weren't exactly giving off the most calm vibes yesterday.

I jump off the branch of a tree, soaring through the air and onto another branch. "Good, because I was hoping to get it done before nightfall. There's ten kilometers from the gate to our destination, right? Because if there were no obstacles, then we could get there in an hour or less if we book it. But if we account for terrain, then it could take us twice that long. And then, we need to account for the time it'll take to find another team and get our hands on another scroll. So…we might be able to get this done in four or five hours, if we don't run into any serious complications."

There's screaming off in the distance, which means that things have just started to heat up. Akito looks worried. "Well, I guess some people don't waste any time, huh?"

"Yeah…" Then, I feel something rather familiar, and very warm through the trees. "Hey, I want to take a slight detour, is that okay?"

Hiro raises an eyebrow curiously. "You sense another team?" He must be wondering if I'm drawing them into a battle this early.

I smile softly. "Something like that. But this one is friendly. So I hope that you two don't mind…" _Looks like I'll be seeing you sooner than I thought, Naruto._

Akito shrugs. "Sure, we can take a detour." He's being fairly accepting of this, probably because the exam has only just started, meaning that we've got plenty of time, even if we make a small trip out of the way.

"Awesome!" I take off towards where the twelfth gate is supposed to be. It's hard to sense other people right now, but it's been getting stronger, little by little over the past few months. And this person, especially, has a chakra signature that draws me closer. Not only is it familiar, but it's really strong as well.

The wind whistles around us as we leap through the trees. And it only takes us a few minutes to close in on the feeling that hasn't moved for the last five minutes or so. As we come up on it, I slow down a little, and hit a tree branch hard as I come to a stop.

The noise alerts the three familiar figures below, and they look up at me, the idiot's eyes widening. "Ciara!?"

I grin down at my silly best friend. "Hey there, I knew it was you over here." No matter what, I would know the feel of his energy anywhere.

He grins back at me and waves. "I had no clue you were this close!"

"Neither did I…" It's good to see them at the start of the test. "So, you guys feeling good about this test?"

Sakura fidgets. "Well…I don't like the idea of being stuck for five days in this place."

I can definitely understand her reservations. "Just stay away from any berries with spots on them, stick to the dark blue ones, the white ones, and the res ones. But if they're red with any white discoloration, watch out, because they're not pleasant when they're not ripe." I might as well give them enough advice to avoid having to treat them for poison later. Or irritated bowels, since that could get really messy.

She blinks, then smiles at me. "Thanks for the advice!" I'm sure that she'll remember what I've said. She has a good mind for this kind of information. In fact, if she can ever break away from Sasuke and Naruto for a bit, her chakra control might let her become a decent medic. Still, there are plenty of options, and she'll figure out what she wants to do eventually.

Sasuke watches me warily. "So, does this mean that the three of you aren't here to fight us?" He must be assuming that everyone in here is an enemy. Well, he should know better than that, because I'm going to try to avoid fighting anyone in our graduation class if at all possible. Call me sentimental, but I'm a little too attached to them to enjoy beating them to a pulp for a scroll, then leave them out here in the forest. I'd rather do it one on one where medics can show up fast.

"Nope." I shake my head quickly. "I don't care which scroll you've got, to be honest. There are twenty-four other teams out there that could have the scroll we're looking for, so there's no need to pick on you guys. Plus, I'd really like to see you three in the next round."

Akito taps my shoulder and nods deeper into the forest. "We should get going. Unless we're going to fight them, we need to get going and find a fight of our own. We still need another scroll."

"Right." I stand up straight and smile down at the three of them. "See you guys later! And good luck in passing to the next round!" Then, I turn on heel and take off into the darkness found under the forest canopy.

Akito and Hiro catch up in a second, and after a few minutes, Hiro grins. "So, you just wanted to go and say hi to Naruto, huh? That's an interesting reason for a detour."

"Of course." My smile refuses to fade from my face. "You guys know that he's my best friend, so of course I'm going to cheer him on if I get the chance." A snicker escapes me. "I'd like to get an opportunity to fight him later. That doesn't mean that I plan to lose to him, though. If we fight, it's going to have people running for the hills." _Especially if either of us go full throttle, or worse, both of us._

"Good, because it looks like we're going to have company soon." Akito glance ahead into the trees. "There's someone up ahead, and they're leaving tracks all over the place. We should be catching up to them soon."

I look to the ground, and I see what he means. A team of three must have passed through here just ten minutes ago. They must have passed us while we were taking that detour. "Good, that means that we can sneak up on them from behind. Let's go."

We pick up the pace, but stay as quiet as we can. We have no idea who we're sneaking up on, so its most prudent to be ready for anything. I know that it's barely been a half hour since the exam started, but I'm excited by the idea of finishing it up early. And the more time we have to recuperate afterward, the better.

Akito holds up his hand, his voice quiet. "We're almost there, slow down."

Hiro and I nod, slowing our pace and making our footsteps even lighter. Then, I sense them myself, three very foreign chakra signatures. But I can only sense them because they're so close. In fact, they're right below us, walking at a leisurely pace, though looking rather nervous.

I take a good look at them, evaluating them. There's three of them, a girl and two boys, all with varying shades of medium to dark brown hair, and brown eyes. And judging by their forehead protectors, they're from the Hidden Rain. I've never really heard much about that village before, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect, except for maybe the chance of running into some water style. In which case, we've got lightning, wind, and earth to counter it.

My eyes flick around, looking for traps. But from the looks of it, these three are hoping to avoid any difficult battles, and just make it through this test as safely as possible. And considering that they look about Akito and Hiro's age, I can't blame them. _So…I suppose that we should drop in on them and say hello._

I point to the girl, then to myself. And out of the corner of my eye, I see the two of them nod, their eyes fixed on their own targets. And if we're lucky, then the three of them shouldn't see us until its too late. I sigh and drop my voice to barely a whisper. "Nothing lethal."

The last thing I want is for any of us to get blood on our hands during this exam. I know full well that in the course of our future duties, we will probably be required to kill, especially if any of us eventually move into the ANBU, who do most of the village's assassination missions. Of course, I only know that because I remember Itachi in his ANBU outfit. And that was a long time ago. But here and now, there's no need to be doing something like that prematurely. We're still young, so we can hold off on killing people for a little while longer.

With another nod from the both of them, we spring into action. We've been training, so it's a maneuver that we've worked on before. Drop down from the trees, split up the opponents and drive them into the ground, holding them down until they submit, then, either tie them up, or finish them. Though, in this case, I doubt that we'll have to resort to either of those things. Optimistically, this should be over in less than two minutes.

As the smallest of the three, the girl is mine. It's best, in these kinds of attacks, to minimize the size difference between me and my opponent. And as she's the smallest of the three, that leaves her to me. Though she's still taller than me by several inches, which could prove to be a problem. But no matter what, I'll be sure to get over it.

I drop right down behind her, and she barely has enough time to turn around before I shove a kunai to her throat, and another to her spine as my arm wraps around her back. "I suggest that you don't move. If you do, it's either your spinal cord, or your carotid artery. So either behave yourself, or pick your poison. Unless you'd actually rather pick a poison, I've got several of them on hand." This should scare her sufficiently. Though I have no plans on actually following through with that threat. She just needs to think I do.

Her eyes widen, before flicking to her two teammates, who have both been kicked into opposite trees by Akito and Hiro, and will no doubt soon be covered head to toe in bruises if they resist. "How did you-"

"Teamwork and a coordinated strike." I feel pretty good about this, which is a feeling I'm not too used to having. It's not often that I have an opponent in this kind of position. "So, which of you has the scroll? Answer quickly."

She looks into my eyes, horror building as I feel them start to burn. "W-what are you?"

"Answer the question, now." I have no patience for playing games with her, especially after a question like that. "Which of you has the scroll?"

With fear in her eyes, she looks over to the teammate who has been slammed repeatedly against a tree by Hiro, and is now unconscious. "I-In his jacket."

I nod and pull the kunai away from her throat. But as I pull back my other hand, I focus chakra into my fingers and slap them against the back of her neck, hitting a pressure point there. The light fades from her eyes as they become unfocused, and she collapses to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Hiro rummages around in her teammate's coat, searching for their scroll. "Let's see…" He crows in triumph. "Bingo! We've got ourselves a heaven scroll!"

"Really? I grin a little, feeling rather giddy. "I wasn't expecting us to find one on our first try."

Akito laughs and walks over to pat me on the head. For some reason, those two really like doing that. "Well, I guess this is just proof of our very good luck. Now, we should probably get a move on, if we want to make it to the tower before dark. The other teams are either already on the move, or waiting for it to get dark before striking hard. So it's best for us to get to the tower and end our test as quickly as possible."

"Yeah." I look off into the woods around us, then up to the sun shining through the trees. "Okay, so which way is the tower?"

Akito grins, then shuffles some things around in his pocket, before pulling out a small, circular bronze case. "I brought this just in case we needed to find our way around." He flicks it open, revealing a compass. "Okay, so we started at a gate to the south-east, so we need to head northwest to get to the tower. Adding into that, we went off to the west a fair bit when you wanted to go see Naruto and his team. Which means…" He looks off into the trees. "That way, we have to go north-northwest."

Hiro sighs, a slight grin on his face. "Well, lucky for us that you brought that thing, otherwise we could have ended up wandering around for days, trying to figure out which direction to go."

"Alright." I turn my back on the girl, a slight pang of worry shooting through me for just an instant. But that's not important now. She and her teammates knew what they were getting into when they signed those consent forms. Whatever happens to them now is none of my business. "Let's leave them here then.

"Right." Hiro sits his victim up against the tree, in a position that won't feel too uncomfortable in when he wakes up. "Well, we've got our direction, we've got our scroll, so let's just book it. The faster we get to the tower, the faster we can get to sleep."

I roll my eyes. "I'm surprised that you're talking about sleep instead of food."

"Well, we did have that huge picnic earlier." Hiro smiles knowingly. "After finding out that we were coming in here, Akito and I figured that it was going to be some kind of survival test. So we organized the picnic beforehand, so that we would be able to go the rest of the day without needing to eat. And we took some of the leftovers and packed them into my bag." He turns to show me the bag on his back, which I hadn't really paid attention to before now. "So we're not short on food or anything. If we stretched it, we've got enough food for the rest of the exam."

"That said, we still want to finish this test quickly." Akito starts walking northward. "So let's get moving. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can spend the next few days relaxing. No point in delaying just for kicks."

"Relaxing, huh?" I have to admit that it would be nice to get some downtime before moving on to the next round. And since we've got our scroll, that's more than a little possible. All we have to do is get to the tower without losing either of our scrolls, or falling into a trap. "Well, I hope that they've got some nice baths there, or at least a shower, because we're probably going to be all covered in dirt by the time we get there."

The two of them have identical grins, so I return the expression as the three of us take off into the trees. Once again, the scenery turns into a canopy of green and brown, with rays of light green and golden light filtering haphazardly through the treetops. It's actually rather pretty. And I would probably stop here, find a nice tree to sit in, and take a nap while enjoying the feel of gentle sunlight on my face.

What's stopping me is the fact that there are plenty of rival ninja out there, along with who knows what kinds of animals. So unfortunately, it's far too dangerous to indulge that idle fancy of mine. I'll just have to find the most secluded place on the outside of the tower to take a nap in. Somewhere where there's plenty of shade to cool me down, but enough sunlight to relax me. It's a tall order, but I'm sure that I can get creative.

So, the three of us race through the trees, taking a few detours to get through some heavily wooded ares that leave no spaces between the trees. Of course, after doing several mountain rescues, we're pretty good at finding ways to get around the more annoying obstacles.

We continue to run until the sky starts to shift in colors. The sun is starting to go down, even though the days are getting longer. That means that our pace has slowed considerably. And for that, I blame this excessively rugged terrain.

But, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. I can start to see a lot more light through the trees, which means that we're getting close to an open area. Then, I hear the distinct sound of rushing water. "Hey, guys, we're getting close to the river!"

Akito laughs. "Good! I saw the map, so this means that we're getting close to the tower as well. Once we're out of the trees, we should be able to see it easy."

"Finally." Hiro spring forward, and Akito and I follow behind him, our eyes closing for a moment as we're hit with a wall of bright light.

My feet hit the ground, and I open my eyes to see a sparkling blue river. I like the sound of rivers, so this helps to calm my rapidly beating heart. And just over the riverbank, I can see the top of the red tower. "It must be a kilometer and a half away now. Which means that we've covered at least eight and a half kilometers, and that's in rough terrain, with several detours, plus a short fight, and a short meet and greet."

"Yeah." Akito sighs. "We're just about there."

As though to rain on our good luck, an ominous and terrifying growling emanates from the darkness, pinning us against the riverbank. The three of us spin around, and goosebumps riddle my arms as I try to identify exactly what is making that sound. "I don't like this…" I haven't heard a sound like that before, but I already know that I don't like it.

Akito steps in front of me protectively. "Whatever it is, we'll handle it."

"I have a feeling that it's not going to be that easy." Hiro gets into a defensive position, his hands already twitching towards the hand signs for his earth style jutsu.

I reach back for the two tanto strapped above my medical bag. "But what…what's out there?" I know that Anko warned us about the beasts in here, but I didn't actually think that they would come looking for the humans venturing in here.

I guess I was wrong.


	24. Jinchuuriki

**Oh hell yeah, this is me on a roll. I've been so pumped this morning that I've gotten a ton of writing done. I love the feeling I get when I'm inspired to write. It looks like taking a couple of days off was a good thing. I'm all recharged and ready to pound away at the keyboard.**

 **This chapter and the next will continue with the group of chapters that focus almost solely on Ciara and her team, before any of the other teams show back up again to actively participate.**

 **Also, I am working out a way to display/arrange Ciara's family tree so that it won't confuse people. Unfortunately, I can't arrange it the way I normally wood for Anthropology, but I'll use the same kind of key for it. So, look forward to a finished copy of that in the near future.**

* * *

Out of the darkness come a pack of a dozen giant tigers, all growling, with mouths dripping saliva. Now, Anko did warn us that there were going to be wild animals, poisonous plants, and other stuff like that in here. But tigers aren't quite what I was expecting, let alone that this many of them would converge on us at once. And this is a little too much to just be the result of bad luck.

Then again, we've had such good luck so far, that I suppose it's not really all that unexpected that it would have to come to an end eventually. I'd just hoped that it wouldn't be this soon. And I'd certainly hoped that it wouldn't be anything nearly this dangerous. I think I'd rather take on three teams at once than this pack of monster tigers.

Akito and Hiro edge closer to me, shielding me slightly from the dangerous creatures before us. Akito hisses to me quietly. "Hurry and make a run for it while we keep them distracted. If you get to the tower with the scrolls, then we'll be able to meet you there once we lose these guys."

"Don't worry, we got this." Hiro grins nervously, tough I'm sure that he's trying to reassure me.

He fails miserably.

The tigers continue their approach, getting closer by the second. I bite my lip, looking around at the feral animals. _This is bad…there's no way that these two will be able to hold off this many tigers. They're huge! But…_ I glance down towards my stomach. _Maybe… Suzaku? Are you there?_ If he doesn't answer, then chances are, that the three of us won't be getting out of this mess alive. And disqualification from the Chunin Exam will be the least of our worries.

 _Yes, chick, I am here._

I feel bad about what I'm going to ask, but I wouldn't ask if I had any other choice. _Please, help me. I won't let my teammates die. I have to protect them. I know that you're sealed inside me, and that it's probably very rude of me to ask this out of the blue, giving nothing in return, but please, help me save them._

 _It's alright, chick, I know._ Warmth floods my body, a gentle, pleasant feeling. _I have told you already that I will help you when you need me, and that all you must do is ask or act on instinct. Some of my power is at your disposal. But be careful, there is only so much that your body can channel safely right now. If you push yourself too hard, the consequences to your health will be disastrous. And if you suffer, I will suffer as well. Therefore, I will limit you to what you can handle, all right?_

I swallow nervously, but the sensation of fear is soothed by the burning heat coursing through my veins. "Okay…" _I'm ready._

Akito, not understanding me, takes a step forward. "Alright, now go, we'll cover your escape."

"No." I step forward, pushing him aside. "You two need to take cover and stay back." I know how futile it is to ask them not to look, or even to hope that maybe they won't see what I'm about to do, so I'm not going to bother trying. "Back when we were introducing ourselves, there was something that I couldn't tell you about, remember?" Well, there were several things I didn't tell them, but this is the one thing I nearly let slip. Energy pulses to the beat of my pounding heart, running through my veins like liquid fire.

There's a flash of confusion and apprehension on their faces, couple with a dawning understanding. The two of them back away, but remain in a defensive position, as though unsure of how well I'll be able to handle these tigers. But they've got nothing to worry about, not now.

 _My power…is yours to use as you see fit._

Thank you… The liquid fire beings to race through my veins as I stare down the tigers. Some of that fire concentrates itself behind my eyes, sharpening my vision just like in the Land of Waves. But there is no mist here, nothing to obscure my vision, and so, I see everything in a veritable rainbow of colors, every detail sharpened and contrasted. And every single movement made catches my attention as my eyes flick back and forth.

According to Sakura, my eyes changed color the last time I was like this. So I assume that they've gone and changed again. And during the exam, Suzaku said that when he took over my body, my eyes, and the skin around them changed color. Though, as the closest tiger strikes, it would see that's not the only thing that's changed this time.

The tiger pounces, coming right down on my head. And that makes Hiro panic. "Hey! Get out of there!"

But I see no reason to flee. Sure, these tigers freak me out, but I'm not going to let them off me so easily. That liquid fire makes a stop in my back, and I hear a light crunching sound, and feel the bones and muscles of my back churning. A moment later, a brush of red enters my vision, snapping back to swat the tiger away. And it nearly feels like an extension of my ribs and shoulder blades, like another arm.

There, in front of my astonished eyes, are feathers colored scarlet and sunset orange, with a light brushing of gold. I've never seen anything like them before. _Is this your power?_

 _Yes. These are my wings. Use them as you like._

They stretch out behind me, and I admire the colors, and the way that the feathers move. _This…will do nicely._ Along with the wings, I can feel a surge of power inside me, like nothing I've ever felt before. It's exciting, exhilarating, and it's putting me straight up on an adrenaline high. Then, I turn my attention to the tigers with a vicious grin. "Time to go to work."

I spring forwards, my hands working in a blur. **_Fire Style: River of Flames!_** I breathe in deeply, before loosing a flood of fire from my mouth. It doesn't soot out like I've seen Sasuke's do. It pours out, rushes out, gushes out like magma from a volcano. I feel a little bad about how destroyed this area is going to look once I'm done, but this is a fight to protect not only myself, but my two very important teammates.

The three closest tigers hiss at me, backing away in alarm. And that's when they begin to circle around a bit, creating a half circle around me, while still avoiding burning their paws because of the scorching flames.

The wings on my back extend, and it makes me glad that the back of my shirt is open near the top, under the strap that wraps around the back of my neck. The fabric has just been pushed down a little to make room for the wings, instead of ripping itself to shreds to make room. _Okay, note to self. Buy some more clothes with open backs. Closed backs are a no go from now on._

So, with my fashion choices duly updated, my eyes focus and flit between the tigers that are prowling before me. Then, extra warmth builds around my eyes, and I can feel something poking out of my hair. There's no time for me to pay attention to whatever changes are happening to my body, because I've got twelve angry looking giant tigers prowling around me, seconds from striking.

But it's like my reflexes have tripled in speed, so when the first tiger pounces, I'm more than ready. It's like the tiger is moving in slow motion, and as it soars towards me, I jump straight over it's head, and fly high into the air. I stay upside down as I survey the twelve of them, and from this vantage point, they barely look like anything more than little house cats.

And even from this high up, I can see the shocked looks on my teammates' faces. But I just bite my lip and ignore them, because right now, I need to focus on saving their lives, not their opinions of me. And unlike with rival ninja, I have no problems with the idea of ending the lives of a few tigers who want to have us as a snack.

 _Chick, Stretch out your wings and use my power. I will guide your hand._ Suzaku's voice echoes softly in my mind, and my hands start to move on their own. The tiger, horse, boar, dragon, and tiger once more. Then, the words simple come to me. "Phoenix Art: Fire Feathers!"

I'm sure that I would be amazed, if I could look at myself performing this technique. As it is, all I see is a flurry of fiery feathers shooting out in all directions, locking onto the tigers like targets. And that's before they make contact. Each and every feather that hits one of the tigers explodes in a shower of orange, red, and gold fire. It's like setting off a bunch of sunset bombs. Or fireworks, though more magnificent than any fireworks display I've ever seen. They set the whole area aglow with unnaturally beautiful light.

But, no matter how beautiful the scene may be, I rain fiery death and destruction down on the tigers, who are trying to escape the charred landscape. I've spared no expense in destroying the land underneath me, and it'll be years before any grass grows here again. I've doomed this place to desolation, all to protect my teammates. And I would do it again, even if they hate me for what I've shown them.

My wings flap softly, holding me slightly aloft, while I slowly inch back towards the ground. The tigers are scatters, and half of them lie on the ground, either dead or too injured to move. They're beautiful creatures, but for attacking my team, they paid the price with their lives.

Ever so gently, I touch back down, my feet thumping softly in the ashes that litter the ground. With a deep breath, I calm myself, and I can feel the heat receding, the liquid fire in my veins dissipating. It's a somewhat uncomfortable feeling in that it's the disappearance of a feeling that I rather liked. My wings flutter softly, before burning themselves out of existence painlessly.

Then, I lay eyes on Akito and Hiro, and what I see scares me. Their eyes are wide, and their mouths are open. But they're completely silent. And I wish they would say something, anything. Silence just feels like a rejection. A rejection of me, and what I am.

I bite my lip and look away from the two of them, shame and fear welling up inside of me. "I'm sorry…I just…" I swallow nervously. "I didn't want to hide this, but I was scared that you would look at me like I was a freak, a monster." And right now, I'm still afraid of being confronted with that reality, something that I've never had to fear before.

"Why?" Akito's response is immediate. "We're your teammates. It's our job to have your back. Besides, we've been on, what, seventeen missions together? And we've been hanging out and training whenever we're off duty ever since you got back from that A-Rank mission. I think we'd know if you were actually a monster."

"But-" I look down at my stomach, where the seal is invisibly inked into my skin. "But you saw what I did. Normal ninja can't do that!"

"So?" Hiro grins at me. "Personally, I thought that you looked really cool. And who's to say that just because you've got a special power, that it makes you a monster? Besides, it's not like you're going on a murderous rampage." He frowns a little. "You're not planning on going on a murderous rampage, are you?"

I grit my teeth. "I've been tempted. You guys have seen how the people in the village look at Naruto, right?"

Akito nods grimly. "Yeah, they treat him like the plague. Actually…" He scratches his head, looking a little embarrassed. "I caught a storekeeper giving him some trouble about a month ago, trying to charge him double for some food. I knew that he was a friend of yours, so I got involved and…kinda cussed him out. It wasn't pretty. But it sure felt good afterward."

Considering how the rest of the village treats him, I wasn't expecting anyone other than me to stick up for him like that. A few tears form in my eyes, misting my vision and blurring it almost beyond recognition. Sniffling, I try to wipe my tears away, but they just keep coming. "Thank you…I didn't think that anyone else would care enough to help him." I've gotten a little too used to be the only one who actively sticks up for my best friend.

Hiro pats me on the shoulder, and I can hear the smirk in his voice. "So…does that mean that you wanna hear about all the fights I broke up behind the school? Because the best friend of yours has a bad habit of drawing every fight right to him."

Managing to wipe away enough tears to clear up my vision, I look up at Hiro and Akito, both of whom have smiles on their faces. "You two…" I sniffle again. "What did I do to get you two as teammates?"

"Hey!" Akito scoffs in mock hurt. "I know that we're not the most responsible and calm teammates, but don't lump us together with-"

His words are cut off when I wrap my arms around their necks and drag both of them into a tight hug. "Thank you…for being the best teammates I could ever ask for."

He releases a breath, and pats my head, ruffling my hair. "Hey…it's okay. I'd go a lot further to help you two out…we both would."

"Yeah." Hiro smiles at me, then nods towards the tower. "But for now, let's get out of here. I don't want to get caught in another tiger attack."

A sweat drop rolls down my temple. "Uh…I seriously doubt that there are any tigers still standing in this place. Unless I missed one when I was going to town on them, and it's hiding behind one of the rocks. All the ones that I didn't put down are long gone." And considering that I can't hear any terrifying growls or roars out there, I would say that we're in the clear.

Akito nods. "That seems about right." Then he ruffles my hair. "So…how about you tell us about that power of yours before we get to the tower? If anyone beat us there, I'm sure that it's not something you want them to overhear."

I swallow nervously, then nod. "Okay…I'll tell you. But you two have to promise to keep it a secret." They look at each other, nod, then turn back to me, listening intently. "So…as far as I know, Gramps and Yuki-Sensei are the only two who know…what I am."

Hiro frowns. "What you are? Don't you mean who you are?"

I bite the inside of my cheek this time, trying not to draw blood. "Well, the who and the what are two separate issues…" _Jeez…this is not how I wanted this conversation to go._ I'd actually hoped to put it off for a few more years. "First…I guess that you should know _who_ I am, before I tell you _what_ I am." I take a deep breath. "Seven years ago…the Shiryugu estate was attacked. It was the dead of night, and a group of shinobi managed to take down an impenetrable barrier, and sneak inside the grounds. I was only five years old…" And even now, I can still remember the blood. "To make a long story short, everyone in the estate was killed that night." I touch my stomach, the place where there should be a scar to remind me of that night, but where there is none. "I was the only one who survived that night, and only because my uncle, Kiyoshi, sealed a demon inside me to save my life."

"A demon?" Akito raises an eyebrow. "You mean…like the Nine-Tails?"

I inhale sharply and glance at him in alarm. "You know about that?"

He nods. "I do work part-time in the intelligence and interrogation centers, so I find out a lot of stuff I'm probably not supposed to." He glances down at my stomach, as though he knows where my seal is. "But…you had wings, so I'm guessing that's not the fox."

I shake my head. "No, but close." I lift up my shirt, revealing the seal on my skin that's still fading back into my skin. "He has ten tails, not nine. A phoenix…which is why I had fiery wings. His name is Suzaku. And when I saw those tigers, I asked him for help." I'm getting a little side-tracked. "But it's thanks to him that I've survived this long. His healing abilities saved me that day, and they're the reason that I've gotten to this point without injuries. Why I never seem to get hurt, no matter how bad the situation is."

Hiro nods slightly. "Well, that explains a lot. I did think that it was suspicious that you only ever got tired on those hikes we did. Akito and I got trained muscles the first couple of times that lasted for days."

I roll my eyes slightly. "Yeah, I know, and I was the one who treated you for them."

Thinking that we were in the clear might have been a mistake on my part. My head starts pounding, and my vision goes a little blurry. Classic signs of exhaustion. Then, my knees go weak and I nearly crumple to the ground.

Thankfully, I have a knight in shining armor in Akito, who catches me before I hit the ground. "Alright, looks like whatever you did pushed your body a little too far."

"Sorry…" I really don't know what else to say right now. Collapsing is only going to slow us down. "I didn't mean to…"

"Nah, you meant to, alright." Hiro grins, my vision sharpening just long enough to show me a clear picture of his face as Akito shifts me onto his back. "But that's okay. After all, you saved our hides from those tigers. The least we can do is carry you the rest of the way to the tower."

Akito nods, his dark hair shifting against my cheek. "You just get some rest, we'll be there soon enough."

"Okay…" I rest my head on his shoulder, and my eyes flutter shut. _I hope we get there soon…_


	25. The Final Stretch

**Well, it looks like the reviews are glitched, again. I sure hope they work on that, because it gets kind of annoying after the first day.**

 **Now, for anyone getting impatient about there being a lot of canon stuff, and not enough OC stuff, keep in mind that this story is like a pie. The canon verse is the pan. It's sturdy and flexible, and necessary for putting this story together. I am still mixing the ingredients for said pie, so please be patient and let me put all the ingredients in before I shove the pie in the oven. Because if I put the pie in the oven with only half the ingredients, and then take it out before it's done, it's going to be a bad pie.**

 **I don't know about you all, but I would rather have a good pie. And I can hardly give away all of the details already, that just makes for bad writing. This is a show, not tell sort of instance.**

 **Warning: Big dream flashback. Also, some slight divergence from canon details (because said details don't make a lot of sense to me, like leaving a bunch of kids to hang around a tower without at least bringing them inside and giving them food and a place to sleep). And mostly, I just want Ciara to run into Gaara. Now, that's going to be a fun encounter *sarcasm*.**

* * *

My chin rests on Akito's shoulder as he continues to carry me towards our destination. His grip is tight, and I know that no matter what, he's not going to let me fall. He's being very protective, and it makes me feel warm. _Maybe this is what it's like to have a big brother…_ Because being carried like this reminds me of my two favorite Uchiha, whom I miss very much.

Hiro jumps ahead, keeping an eye out as we make our approach. "I doubt that many teams have made it this far this fast. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we're the first, or maybe the second team to get here. They gave us five days, so I'm pretty sure that they're not expecting us to finish this fast."

I smile tiredly. "Well, then I guess it's lucky that we ran into a team with the opposite scroll so quickly. If we hadn't, we could have been out here for a while. And the longer we're out here, the more dangerous it's going to get."

"Yeah, so let's pick up the pace a little more." Akito nods to Hiro, and the two of them let their chakra spike a little, easily doubling their speed. I suppose, in this instance, it's a good thing that I was the one to fight the tigers. I'm the smallest, lightest, so I'm the easiest to carry. And this way, we're going a lot faster than if one, or both of them had tired themselves out, or gotten themselves injured in the fight.

The scenery speeds by, turning nearly everything into blurs of brown and green, once more. Normally, I would be upset about missing out on seeing the world around us, at least feeling it under my feet, if not seeing it firsthand. But right now, I just want to get to the tower and find a place to sleep. I don't care if I have to sleep on the floor, I just need to stop thinking for a while.

I wasn't expecting the cost to my body to be this bad. Then again, I don't know why I expected any differently. Suzaku warned me that it would be dangerous to my body to use his chakra, but I guess that I just assumed that I would be able to recover quickly, just like Naruto. _I guess I just don't have the stamina that he does…_

I know that I'm younger than everyone, but it really irks me that I don't have as much stamina or physical strength as most of them. And while my brain understands that it's because I'm still small, and haven't grown enough yet, I still find that my heart feels as though I'm being left behind. And that's definitely not a fun feeling.

While I'm not entirely sure how fast we're going, what I do know is that a few minutes later, the tower in front of us is huge, and juts up out of the ground like a bloody spire. Okay, maybe that's being a little over-dramatic, but in the light of the setting sun, that's seriously what it looks like.

"Hey, you still with us?" Akito peers over his shoulder, his pale eyes finding mine.

I feel a bit groggy, but I manage a weak nod. "Yeah, still here." I'm getting better by the minute, so I should be able to stand on my own in a bit.

"Good, because we're here." I can hear the smile in his voice, because he's right, there's a door in front of us, sealed closed.

Akito lets me down from his back, and I wobble a little as I find my feet, Akito's hands steadying me. "So, we go in here?"

"Looks like." Hiro puts his hands on the door, and gives it a push. "Oh, it's open." He pushes a little harder, and the doors fold inward, breaking the paper seal.

The three of us exchange wary looks, before heading on inside. It' dark at first, before the lights flicker on, revealing an empty room. Empty, except for the three of us.

There's some writing on the wall, and Hiro frowns as he reads it. "'If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are open together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. This…'" He frowns. "Okay, there's a blank space there…then it says 'is the secret way that guides us from this place today'."

Akito bites his lip. "That sounds like a lot of metaphors. So the first one is…qualities of heaven, wisdom, and the mind."

"That could refer to intelligence." I offer it up as an answer. "And then…" I re-read the next part. "Earthly qualities…that's pretty straightforward, it's talking about physical strength. Which means that the first probably is intelligence. Mind and body. Which means…" I continue reading again. "If your mind and body are in sync, then hard things…become easy? It could refer to ninjutsu, physical and spiritual chakra… It all sounds like the principles of being a ninja to me. So maybe the blank space is supposed to contain nindo or principle?"

"Could be…" Hiro glances at my pack. "Well, only one way to find out, right?"

I quickly understand what he's getting at. "Yeah." I reach into my pack, shuffling things around to grab the two scrolls stashed there. I hold them in my hands and glance at the two of them. "Well, we've completed the mission. We got one of each scroll, and we came here with them. That means that we've filled the parameters of this test. So I guess we should open them and see what all the fuss was about. Anko never said that we couldn't open them up once we got them here."

Carefully, I set the two scrolls on the floor, parallel to each other. And without any hesitation, I roll them both open. What I find…is not what I expect. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what I've found.

Hiro looks over my shoulder. "Uh…if that's some kind of code, then I'm pretty sure that I don't know it. How about you, Akito?"

Akito takes a look at it, just as the two scrolls start smoking. "That's a summoning jutsu! Cross the scrolls over each other so that the symbols line up, that should complete the summoning."

"Like this?" I pull them into an x shape, and they start to smoke even more. "I'll take that as a yes."

A little spooked, the three of us leave the scrolls there and back away, each of us getting into fighting stances, despite my ever-present exhaustion. If it comes down to a fight, I might have to leave it to the boys, because I don't know how much help I'll be right now. But no matter how much help I might or might not be, there's no way I'm running away from this.

The smoke turns into a column instead of a wisp, and a flash emanates from within its depths. I wouldn't say my nerves are frayed, but I'm definitely on edge. Mostly because I have no idea what or who this scroll is summoning. Probably a who, since the biggest character on both scrolls referred to a person.

A form in the smoke begins to move, and in an instant, the smoke dissipates, revealing Kotetsu's head of spiky hair. "So, you three sure made it here quickly."

I relax a little, but this guy still annoys me. "What, were you expecting us to take a whole five day camping trip out there or something?"

He smirks at us. "Well, I certainly didn't expect you to finish up this fast, that's for sure." He looks us up and down, nodding. "I guess your attitudes aren't just cockiness."

Hiro yawns and cracks his neck. "So…are we supposed to fight you or something? Because if we're just going to stand around and talk, then can we get to the point already?" He must be impatient to move on after all the running we've done today. "And if at all possible, I want to get some sleep."

Kotetsu chuckles. "Alright. Well, I suppose that I don't have to explain the writing on the wall, seeing as you figured that out all by yourselves. I'm sure that your sensei will be proud." He takes a step back and picks the scrolls up off the ground. "Well, you guessed right the whole way along, so I can only say good things about your deduction skills." He stows them in his pouch and grins. "Congratulations, your team is moving on to the next round of the Chunin Exams."

Those last few words take all of the tension out of the air, and Akito smiles. "Well, that's good to hear. But…we don't have to fight you, do we? Because if it's three on one, that's not going to end well."

Kotetsu chuckles. "No, you won't be fighting again for a while. Just hang around here until the five days are up, then we should have all the candidates settled."

"Okay…" There's still something weird about all of this. "So…do we just go back into the forest or something?" That option seems rather dangerous and impractical to me, but it's better to find out now what's expected of us.

He shakes his head. "No." He points over to the left side of the wall. "That door leads to a hallway that connects to a set of stairs. If you go up to the second floor, you'll find a bunch of rooms. Just look for three doors with the number two on them, and you'll be set."

"Two?" Hiro raises an eyebrow. "Why two?"

Kotetsu chuckles again. "Because you're the second team to make it. The first team arrived about three hours ago. Both of your teams beat the old record for passing this part of the exam. You three beat it by almost an hour. Be proud of yourselves."

With that, he disappears in a whirl of smoke, leaving the three of us alone, and rather bewildered. I blink at the place where he once was, then shake my head. "Well…that was weird."

"No kidding." Hiro puts his hands behind his head and walks over towards the door. "Well, lets go, then. We should go find our rooms and hit the sack. We've got four more days before the next round starts, so we should spend this time relaxing and planning, right?"

"Right." Akito and I join Hiro near the door, and he pushes it open. "I wonder what other team made it here." His face darkens. "And even if we beat the record, I wonder how the hell they beat it so fast."

"Yeah…" I follow behind the two of them as we head down the hallway and over to the stairs. _I know that our team is good, there's no doubt about that. But what other team has the sheer speed and power to finish the test this quickly? If they've been here for a few hours already, then they finished less than two hours after the test started. That's insane!_

It seems that my curiosity will be sated, because as we ascend the stairs, there's some noise coming from down the second floor hallway. And a girl's voice rings out. "Ugh, this place is a dump. I can't believe they expect us to stay here."

"Hmph, I told you that we shouldn't expect anything decent from this place." Now that's a voice I recognize. It's Kankuro, that black-clothed genin from the Hidden Sand. Even his voice grates on my nerves.

"Well, I guess now we know who beat us here." I sigh unhappily. "It's that team from the Sand, the one with the red-head, the one in black, and the girl with the blond hair."

Akito smiles grimly. "Then should we go say hello?"

I have to admit that I do have some lingering curiosity about that squad from the sand, especially the red-head. "Alright. But stay on your guard. If that Kankuro guy tries to pull something again, I don't want either of you caught unaware."

"Right." Hiro's eyes focus in on where the sounds are coming from as we approach an open archway.

When the three of us walk through the archway, we're greeted with the sight of a large common room, and three occupants. And they're precisely the occupants that my ears told me they would be. The three Sand genin.

Of course, as soon as we step into the room, their conversation ceases, and they turn to stare at us. The red-head's eyes find mine, and there's something about them that just seems so familiar. Whatever it is, I can figure that out later. For now, I might as well make nice with this team that looks like it wants to kill me.

I take a few steps towards one of the couches, sliding myself down onto it and lying down on my back. "So, I heard that you guys finished this test in an hour and a half. Congratulations. Seems like the old record is no match for the candidates this year."

Kankuro shifts uncomfortably. "Well, we managed to run into another team pretty fast, so we just grabbed their scroll and booked it here." It sounds like he's not telling me the whole story. And judging by the scent of blood coming from the red-head, with no traces of it on his clothing, he's the one who did most of the work.

My eyes drift back to the him, to find him staring quite determinedly at me. I raise an eyebrow slightly. "Something wrong?"

His teammates recoil a little, edging away from both of us. But he's not fazed in the least. "Who are you?"

Okay, so not quite what I was expecting. But I suppose that there's worse questions he could have asked. "Ciara. As you can probably see, I'm a Leaf genin."

His eyes flick to my headband, half hidden by my bangs, then they narrow. "What are you?"

My heart almost stops at the question. _What am I?_ There's no way that he should know that, and yet, he's still asked. So even if he doesn't know, it means that he has some inkling about me, enough to be curious enough to ask the question. Maybe it's my chakra that gives me away. Or it might be Suzaku's giving me away. In either case, this could be bad. "Well…I'm not going to tell you that. I need to be really good friends with someone before telling them that."

I watch his response, and there's something churning in those pale eyes of his. A hint of frustration, a little impatience, and a whole lot of questions. "Tell me, what are you?"

I can see that he's becoming agitated, and since I know that he's got blood on him somewhere, I'd rather not push my luck and get into a full-blown fight here. Because I've got abilities that he doesn't know about, and I'm not sure who would win here. But more than my own safety, I'm worried about my teammates.

So, I push myself into a sitting position, staring him down. "Maybe our teams should hang out for the next few days. Then, If I like you, I might tell you what you want to know. Deal?"

Without waiting for his response, since I'm fairly certain he's not going to vocalize one, I stand up and turn towards the hallway. Then, I feel a small pressure rising up my right ankle. I look down, and see a tendril of sand curling around my foot. The smell of blood is coming from there. _So…this is what he used to defeat whatever team they ran into. And judging by the smell of blood, they're not around to talk about it anymore._

Turning, I let my eyes find his again, and I gaze sternly at him. "I see that you're clingy, but if it's all the same to you, I would like to go to my room and get some sleep. I had to deal with a dozen giant tigers earlier, which means that I'm tired and a little cranky. So why don't we continue this conversation another time?" The sand proves to be stubborn, so I release a little chakra from my foot and pull my foot out of the sand. "I'll see you later…Gaara? That's your name, right?"

His eyes narrow a little, and sand starts crawling towards me again. So I shake my head and stride out of the room. There's no way that I'm going to just let him do to me whatever he did to his opponents in the exam. If he and that sand of his think I'm going to be a pushover, he's dead wrong.

Hiro glances at me as the three of us start walking down the hallway. "What was that about? It's like you two were in a world all to yourselves."

Akito shifts slightly. "There was some blood-lust coming from him the whole time. Be careful around him, he's dangerous."

Looking ahead, but keeping my senses on alert, just in case Gaara decides to be persistent, I nod. "Yeah, there's definitely something dangerous about him. But I don't know why he's so interested in me. I mean, I suppose that there could be several reasons, but I don't know which one it is."

"Well, then we're just going to have to be careful around them for the next few days." Hiro sighs and puts his hands behind his head. "Anyway, if you two decide to go at it in here, please warn us ahead of time so we can book it. I don't want to get caught up in whatever constitutes an all-out fight with you."

"Fair enough." There's no reason for me to expect anything else. "If it looks like things are going to turn into a fight, at his behest, not mine, then I'll do what I can to warn you. But I'm not here to pick a fight, I just want to get to know our competitors. Call it recon, or even just curiosity. But there are things I want to know, and it seems there are things he wants to know as well."

Akito stops us suddenly, staring at a door. "Well, here we are. These doors should be the bedrooms that Kotetsu told us about."

I glance at the doors, and they're all labeled with paper notes that have the number two on them. "Good. It's been a long day, and I want to get some sleep." I smile up at my teammates. "See you two in the morning."

Hiro frowns. "Are you going to be alright in there by yourself? That Gaara tried to attack you earlier."

I nod. "Yeah, I'll be fine. If it looks like anything bad is going to happen, then I'm sure that my little friend will be able to sense it. And he'll wake me up." I'm not at all sure if that's the case, but I might as well say it to reassure my teammates. And somehow, I get the feeling that I'm right anyway.

Akito smiles and opens one of the doors. "Alright then, we'll leave it to your friend to watch you. But if there's anything you need, just knock on one of our doors. Or the wall, if you can't reach the door."

His concern is touching, but unnecessary, and I roll my eyes. "Okay, I will. Now get some sleep. I have a feeling that we're going to need all the energy we can get once these five days are up."

"Agreed." Hiro takes the door on the other side, leaving me with the one in the middle. "Night, guys. See you in the morning." And he closes himself in quickly.

I let myself into my room, closing the door securely behind me. There's a decent sized bed lying in the corner of the room, and what looks like a small bathroom off through a smaller archway. _I'll have to see if there's a tub in there tomorrow. I'd like to get some of this dirt off my clothes._

But my first priority is pulling off my sandals, as well as my shirt and capri, leaving me in a small pair of green shorts and a white halter top. It's been a rather long day. So, as soon as I crawl into bed and my head hits the pillow, I begin to dream.

* * *

 _A familiar dark ponytail slides into my field of vision, accompanied by a head of shaggy raven locks. My eyes slowly lift and slide over their faces, barely registering them at all._

 _"Ciara? Can you hear me?" The one with the shaggy hair touches my cheek, his dark eyes gazing deeply into mine. Then, he turns to a third figure in the room. "Do you know what's wrong with her"_

 _The shadowed figure sighs. "We believe that she's in shock. The specific details as to how that happened have not been disclosed to me. However, what I have been told is that the Shiryugu Clan is gone, completely destroyed. And she was found amongst the bodies. It would seem that someone saved her life, because the blood we found on her body belonged to her. In fact, I would say that it's a miracle that she survived not only whatever killed everyone, but also exposure to the elements before being found. She was hardly dressed to be outside, let alone spend the night in the cold."_

 _"I see…" The boy winces, before turning back to me, sadness filling his eyes. "Ciara, are you in there?"_

 _The doctor shakes his head. "She hasn't responded since arriving. She shows listlessness, and does not respond to visual or auditory stimulation, nor does she respond to being touched. If it were not for the fact that she can open her eyes, I wouldn't even believe she were conscious. She's been in a catatonic state since arriving. Catatonic depression, I believe."_

 _"Which can be related to extreme trauma…" The long-haired one sits on my bed and takes my hands. "Ciara, will you please talk to us?"_

 _As he squeezes my hands, there's a slight tingling in my fingers, where before it was numb. His hand is warm, I can feel the warmth. And it seems that he can feel the temperature difference as well._

 _Breathing an unnaturally warm breath onto my hands, he starts rubbing my tiny fingers in his much bigger ones. "You're so cold…" Suddenly, one particularly vigorous rub sends a shock through my fingers, and I twitch. His eyes shoot to mine, widening. "Ciara!?" He rubs my hands a little harder, and slowly, my hands begin to clench._

 _"Whoa, Itachi, you're getting something!"_

 _The doctor comes a little closer. "That's strange. She's never responded like that before…" He peers at the two of them. "You two said that you were ANBU, right?"_

 _The taller one nods. "We are, but that's just the excuse we used to get in. She's my brother in law's daughter, and Itachi is my cousin. We used to visit the estate all the time to play with her."_

 _The doctor's eyes widen, then he glances at me. "Then perhaps the two of you will be able to get something out of her. It seems that strangers get no response from her. But…perhaps some exposure to family will." He bows out of the room, closing the door behind him._

 _Itachi sighs, sounding rather forlorn. "To think that we would come back from a mission to see this…" He tickles my fingers a little. "Can you hear me now?"_

 _I tilt my head a little as a few cobwebs start to clear, giving a name to the one in front of me. Opening my mouth, I try to say something. But it just moves uselessly, not a sound emerging. I try again, but nothing comes out, not even a peep._

 _Itachi frowns. "Shisui, come here, I have an idea."_

 _Shisui approaches, then sits himself down on the other side of the bed. "Alright, so what's this idea of yours?"_

 _Itachi points to my mouth. "Her voice isn't working, but her lips are, so…"_

 _"Oh, I get it." Shisui smiles, then closes his eyes for a moment. Then, he opens them again, and they're a beautiful bright scarlet. "Now, let's see what she's saying."_

 _Itachi squeezes my hands again. "Ciara, do you remember us?"_

 _My mouth starts moving again. 'Chi-Chi…Shi-Shi…'_

 _Shisui grins. "That's a yes, then. Okay…" He strokes my hair gently. "Do you…know where you are?"_

 _'Hospital?'_

 _He nods. "Yes." His mouth twitches a little. "Do you know why you're here?"_

 _I freeze, and the memory of pain in my abdomen greets me. Without my direction, my knees curl in and press to my stomach. 'Gone.'_

 _Shisui freezes, then slides closer and wraps his arm around my waist. "I'm sorry, I wish I could have been there to stop this from happening."_

 _"You're not the only one." Itachi's eyes darken a little. "But who would do this?"_

 _Shisui grits his teeth. "Professionals, obviously. There's no way that they could have gotten into such a well-defended compound otherwise."_

 _"But why them?" Anger flashes through Itachi's eyes and voice, though no other traces of it are shown on his face. "There's no one they could have provoked, they made sure to avoid that."_

 _"That's true." Shisui muses. "There isn't much point in being the peacekeepers between the clans if they have a habit of making themselves enemies at every turn. And I'm certain that Lord Ryouta would have made sure to have the barrier up by nightfall."_

 _I tremble a little, the memories of that night coming back little by little. 'They…killed everyone.'_

 _Itachi snaps his eyes back to me. "I'm sorry, we shouldn't be talking like this in front of you."_

 _I can' bring myself to open my mouth again. Everything feels so cold and empty. And the only source of warmth is coming from the two boys sitting on my bed._

 _Shisui turns to Itachi. "Normally, I would suggest bringing her home with us, but…"_

 _"It might not be safe for her there. And neither of us are old enough or have enough free time to look after her." Itachi sighs. "We'll have to arrange for something with Lord Hokage."_

 _"Exactly." Shisui pulls on my arms and wraps his around me. "Go to sleep, little once. And have good dreams."_

 _The last thing I see is a flash of red, then darkness._


	26. The Tower

**I just got an amazing idea for something funny. Something that I've been working on, and will continue to work on, is how Ciara relates to the other rookies. So, I thought, what better way to bond between a couple of twelve year olds, than through some teasing and a bet? It's going to be very important in a couple of arcs. Mostly for comedic relief.**

 **Of course, since this story takes place within canon, I'm trying to keep the characters as in character as possible, while also expanding them beyond the rather limited interactions that are shown in the story. Because these ninja do have lives when they're not on screen.**

 **So, this chapter did not initially exist, I had no notes for it, and never planned on making it. But, then I started getting ideas, and I thought that it would be a good idea to indulge my imagination. Doing that can make for some very interesting, and potentially funny, instances later on. Plus, this way, I can get some running jokes started. I've got plenty of ideas for those little gems.**

 **I'm also looking at putting in some funny stuff between Akito and Hiro. I hope that it all turns out well.**

 **Finally, bath time is fun. :)**

* * *

If there's anything good to be said about this place, it's gotta be about the food. Now that we're out of the survival test, they're feeding us pretty well in the common room. It's no five-star restaurant, that's for sure, but it's a whole lot better than what the teams still in the forest are eating.

The three of us lounge around on the couches with sandwiches, dumplings, and rice balls strewn about. And after my little display of power yesterday, I'm definitely hungry enough to demolish anything they put in front of me. Not only that, but I slept for a solid ten hours. The beds might not be as comfy as the one I have at home, but they're more than enough to get a good night's sleep on.

Hiro lays down on one of the couches, his eyes closed, and a smile on his face. "You know, I think I can get used to this for the next few days. No stress, no pressure, just waiting around for the other teams to finish up."

Akito glances at him and smirks. "Just don't forget to get some training in now and then. Wouldn't want you to be rusty by the time the next part of the exam starts."

"I'm not going to get rusty that fast!" Hiro's eyes shoot open and he grins at Akito. "But if you really wanna say that, then why don't you and I go find a dark corner and get down to practice?" His eyebrows wiggle a little, confusing me.

I look between the two of them, wondering what exactly is going on with those two. "Uh…do I want to know?"

"Probably not." Akito shrugs, though his eyes never leave Hiro. "Well, you can pick the place, but I swear that I'm beating you this time."

Hiro chuckles. Then, his laughter dies a bit as he turns to me. "Are you going to be alright on your own? Those Sand ninja are still here, and I'm not really comfortable leaving you here with them."

I wave my hand lazily. "Go on, I'll be fine. I doubt that there's anything that they can do that I can't handle. So you two can go and do…" I glance at them warily. "Whatever it is that you two are planning on doing." And I get the distinct feeling that this is something I don't want to know.

Shoving the rest of their food into their mouths, the two of them take off into the hall and disappear from sight. Moments later, three new figures take their place. Three figures that I was not at all expecting to see this soon. "Kiba, Shino, Hinata, it's good to see you." I take a look at their slightly dirty clothes. "When did you get here?"

"Late last night." Kiba yawns, his jacket rolling up as his arms stretch high above his head. "I didn't know that you three were here already."

I smirk at him. "Well, the Sand team only beat us by a few hours, but we still beat the old record, so that's something that makes me feel good." I pop another rice ball into my mouth, chewing the salted rice slowly.

Hinata shoots me a soft, gentle smile. "I-it's good to s-see you." That girl is still so shy, even though there's no reason for her to be nervous around me.

I glance over at the table with the food, then pat the seat next to me on the couch. "Grab some food and come sit down. I'm sure that we're going to have plenty to talk about."

Kiba wastes no time in running over to the food, and Akamaru yips happily behind him, the little white dog racing all over the floor. Hinata and Shino follow quietly behind the two hyper puppies. I actually find their team to have a nice dynamic, they're all very compatible. Mostly because Shino tolerates the noise, Hinata is a sweetie pie, and Kiba is happy, determined, and as hyper as Naruto hopped up on sugar.

Once they've got their food, Hinata comes to sit next to me, Shino finds himself a chair, and Kiba lounges on the couch across from me and Hinata. Thankfully, the air is warm and comfortable, though I would attribute that to the fact that everyone has food.

Hinata turns to me, her eyes shining. "S-So, how did your s-squad get here s-so fast?"

I smile at the stuttering girl. "Well, we got lucky and ran into a team with a heaven scroll just a little while after dropping in to say hi to Naruto's team. Then, we headed here, stopping only to deal with a pack of giant tigers."

"Giant tigers!?" Kiba sits up, staring at me. "You ran into a whole pack of those monsters?"

I nod. "Twelve of them. They had us pinned against the riverbank…" There's a lot about that encounter that I'm just not ready to tell them about yet. "It was a close call, and it got a little messy, but the three of us got out of there without a scratch. That's what matters."

Akamaru yips a little, before jumping off the couch and racing towards me, jumping one more time and landing square in my lap. It relieves me that I finished my food already, otherwise he would have sent it flying everywhere. I look questioningly over at Kiba, while my right hand moves to scratch Akamaru behind his ears.

Kiba smiles uncertainly. "Wow, he's really attached to you. I don't think I've seen him warm up to anyone that quickly."

Akamaru starts sniffing me, burrowing his nose against my stomach, before yipping loudly. "Um…what's he doing?" I look up to Kiba, whose eyes have gone wide. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Kiba blinks, then coughs into his sleeve. "Uh…nothing, it's just…" He frowns at me. "Uh…this is going to sound weird, but…how much chakra do you have?"

That's definitely a weird question to ask, especially if you're asking someone who could be your opponent in less than a week. "Um…I'm not exactly sure how to measure how much I've got, but…" There's no way to actually ballpark it. "A lot? Like…a whole damn lot?"

Kiba blinks again, then his eyes drop to Akamaru. "That sounds about right…if what Akamaru said is the truth."

Okay, now that sounds weird. "Mind explaining?" This is something that I've got to hear, because there's no way of knowing what Akamaru might have told him. I don't speak dog.

Kiba shifts nervously. "Well…Akamaru can sniff out the level of someone's chakra. The last time he ran into someone with chakra like yours, he got so scared that he refused to move. But with you, he isn't shivering. So I'm just a bit confused."

 _Ah…that explains why he's looking for an explanation._ "Well, then I guess I should be flattered that Akamaru likes my powerful chakra, instead of being scared of it."

Kiba nods. "He said that it's warm. Can chakra be warm?"

"Uh…I don't think chakra has a temperature…" I sweatdrop a little. _Wait…but then again…fire jutsu are warm, so I guess it might not be totally unreasonable for chakra to have the ability to be warm or cold. Or it could just be an emotional response to the purity or feel of the chakra._ That's something that I'll have to research later, since it sounds like it could be quite an interesting research topic. "Anyway, so there's three teams here, right? Who else do you think is going to make it?"

Kiba shrugs. "Dunno. I doubt anyone else from our class is gonna make it this far. Survival isn't exactly their thing. Hell,, I was surprised that you three made it." I choose to ignore that remark, since I really gave no indication of my skills while we were all at the academy.

Hinata twiddles her thumbs nervously. "I-I hope that Naruto…makes it…"

Raising an eyebrow, I scrutinize her for a moment. "Do you have any doubts? Honestly, I'd be more surprised if he didn't show up."

"Naruto!?" Kiba barks with laughter. "You've gotta be kidding me! There's no way that he's going to make it past this round!"

"Are you really so sure about that?" I smirk at Kiba. "You used to hang out with him all the time, remember? You should know as well as I do that Naruto is highly unpredictable, and doesn't know what the word impossible means. Knowing him, he'll probably show up at the last minute, ready to start swinging."

"Oh yeah?" Kiba glances at me, a similar smirk forming on his face. "Wanna bet on that?"

"You're on." There's no hesitation here. "What's it going to be?" I don't really care what we're betting, because I have complete and utter faith that I'm going to win. No matter if this is a reward or a punishment game, I know that I'm going to be the one to come out on top.

The growing smirk turns into a crooked grin. "Loser takes the winner out for barbecue."

Now that's a bet I can definitely get behind. "If Naruto makes the cut and shows up for the next round, you're paying for me when we get barbecue. If he doesn't show up, I'm paying. Deal?"

"Deal." Kiba laughs, probably thinking that he's already won this bet. As for me, I'm counting on Naruto's stubbornness to win this bet for me. Because if there's anything I can depend on, it's Naruto to never give up when he really wants something. And getting through to the next round is definitely something that my idiot best friend wants.

Plus, I doubt that this idiot knows how much I can eat. I was mostly done with breakfast by the time he team came in here. Though maybe I should go easy on him for the sake of his wallet.

Hinata shifts closer to me, a shy smile on her face. "Um…C-Ciara? This morning, I f-found the bathing room. I-I was wondering i-if you wanted to-"

"Go with you to take a bath?" I smile at her, seeing where she was going with that. "Sure! I found out this morning that the little bathroom in my room doesn't have a bathtub. It'd be nice to take a bath." I glance at Kiba and Shino, my smile growing. "Why don't we ditch the boys and go?"

Hinata's smile widens, so I pull her off the couch, squeezing her hand as we head for the way out. But as the two of us get to leaving, three figures appear in front of us. Obviously they were coming in for breakfast, but it's still a little weird to see Sand ninja first thing in the morning.

Kankuro edges around me, not saying a word. Their female teammate, on the other hand, looks down at me and Hinata in confusion. "Uh…good morning?"

She seems friendly enough to have a conversation with, so I put a smile on my face. "Good morning. Me and Hinata were just ditching the boys and heading to the baths. If you eat quickly, then come join us in a little while."

She blinks, startled by the invitation. "Oh, uh…I guess a bath sounds nice."

"Temari, come on, breakfast is over here!" Kankuro waves over at Temari from the breakfast table. "Hurry before it's all gone!"

"Coming, Kankuro." She spares one more glance at us, before joining her teammate over by the table with food on it.

That leaves Gaara, who is still staring at me the way he did last night. But instead of saying anything, he just finishes looking at me, and walks right by us without another word.

Inside my mind, I can feel Suzaku twitching. _Careful, chick…that one is not all that he appears to be._

I spare one last glance at Gaara before Hinata and I disappear into the hallway, her taking the lead as we head towards the baths. _What do you mean he's not all that he appears to be? Who, or what, is he?_

Suzaku retreats back into my mind without another word, but from the tone he used, there's something up that he's not telling me about. I'm not sure if it's because he doesn't know what's going on, because he doesn't know enough details to have a clear picture, or because it's something he doesn't want me to know, but it's obviously not good. But, I'll have to be patient and wait, otherwise I'll never be able to get the truth out of him. We've done things on his terms so far, so I'm not sure exactly how far I can push my luck with him.

Thirty seconds later, Hinata pushes open a door marked with a triangle containing a female-looking figure. "Um…the b-baths are here."

The baths most certainly are here. In the middle of the room is a gigantic bathtub, with wooden sides, and steps leading up into it. It's empty right now, but from the way that the plumbing looks, we should be able to get it filled up by the time it takes us to change our clothes and get washed off. Then, we can spend the whole morning relaxing.

I grin at the sight in front of me. "Alright, then let's get this ready!" After kicking off my shoes, I slide over to the bathtub and get the taps running, the water splattering against the floor of the tub as it begins to fill up.

Hinata pokes her head into another room, then turns to me, smiling. "I f-found a w-washing machine."

I look over at her, a grin on my face. "Perfect. We can throw our clothes in there while we have our bath. Our clothes will be nice and clean by the time we're done." She nods quietly, before slowly, hesitantly, staring to take her clothes off.

Following suit, I unhook my two tanto and my medical bag, stashing them against the wall where I can keep an eye on them. Then, I strip off all my clothes and exchange them for a towel. I've got no problem changing in front of Hinata. She's not going to say anything, and besides, if she really wanted to see something, there's nothing that could stop her Byakugan anyway. But she's far too shy to try anything like that. I can trust her.

After throwing our clothes into the washing machine, the two of us head over towards the wash stations. There's so many different kinds of soap that the smells nearly overwhelm me. Thankfully, Hinata chooses a light lavender soap to wash with. I, on the other hand, pick one that smells like peaches and raspberries.

It takes fifteen minutes of lathering and rinsing off soap to make me feel really clean. Running through the forest and facing down tigers isn't exactly an exercise where you can avoid breaking a sweat. But still, it was decent exercise, and I'll probably find somewhere to go and get some more exercise tomorrow. I'll get restless otherwise.

With my towel wrapped back around me, since I do have some reservations about showing off my small and undeveloped body, I slip into the warm water and turn off the taps. Hinata joins me half a minute later, her own towel wrapped around her as well.

Her thumbs twiddle a little, before her soft voice breaks the silence. "S-so, how is N-Naruto doing?"

"Naruto?" At first it feels a little strange to me that she would be asking about him, considering that it's only been a day since we last saw him. Then, it occurs to me that I see him way more than she does, perks of being best friends and neighbors as well. "He's doing well. He's got as much fire and determination as ever. But he and Sasuke are always getting on each other's nerves. But getting on each other's nerves seems to be how they bond, so I guess they're getting along well. As much as we could expect them to, anyway."

"I-I see." Her cheeks start to turn pink, though I'm not sure if that's from the heat of the bath, or from thinking about Naruto.

I open my mouth to add to my earlier spiel, before there's a knock on the door. My attention turns there immediately. "Who is it!?"

"It's me, Temari." It's the girl from the Sand.

I glance at Hinata, and she nods, so I turn back to the door. "Come in!"

The door opens, revealing Temari. And thankfully, she's alone. "So, is the bath good?"

Her question makes me smirk, since she's being a little quiet. "Yeah, it's nice and warm. Why don't you wash off and join us. There's laundry machines in the back." I point towards an archway, through which, several laundry machines can be seen. "Just shove your stuff in there for now. We can soak until all our clothes are done." Then I point to the wash stations. "They've got like a million types of soap, and I think I saw some shampoo and conditioner kicking around."

She nods, taking off her shoes before pulling off her clothes and heading for the laundry room. With Temari off doing her thing for the next ten to fifteen minutes, I turn back to Hinata. "So, are you hoping to see Naruto in the final round?"

She blushes bright red, which answers my question about whether it was thoughts of Naruto, or the bath that had made her pale cheeks turn pink. And quietly, she nods. "Y-yes, it would b-be nice if N-Naruto could join us."

I would ask her if she meant joining us in the bath, but I'm not nearly that cruel. "Yeah, I'll be quite disappointed if he, Sasuke, and Sakura don't make the cut. And I'm not just saying that because I want Kiba to treat me to dinner." Though that's certainly a nice bonus. "Actually, I'm kind of hoping to get the chance to fight Naruto or Sasuke. Maybe both. Who knows how the final round is going to line up…"

I lose myself for a moment, trying to imagine what could possibly happen in the final round. But no matter what I try to imagine, it all just doesn't seem quite right. It's all slow, or gray, or simply unsatisfying. Mostly because I have no idea who exactly is going to be in the final round.

I'm roused from my imaginings as the water ripples, and I turn my head to see Temari slipping into the water, a towel wrapped around her form as well. And that's when I notice her chest. Her rather well-endowed chest.

Sometimes, life just isn't fair.

Biting my lip, I look up to her eyes. "Um, how old are you?"

She looks at me quizzically, then shrugs. "Fifteen."

My eyes drift to Hinata, flicking down just enough to see a distinct curve to her chest. "That is so not fair…" And what's worse, is she's only a few months older than me.

"W-what's not fair?" Hinata stares at me, not grasping what's got me so down.

Temari, on the other hand, seems to have caught on quickly. "What's wrong, you're like twelve, right? No one's expecting you to look like an adult right now."

My cheeks start to burn, and I'm sure that my face is turning scarlet. "Well, no, but…" I look down at my own very flat chest and sigh. "I just wish that I actually looked like a girl sometimes." I pick at my towel self-consciously. _Maybe, if I actually looked like a girl, the boys wouldn't tease me about being ugly._ It's something I endured from both the boys and the girls at the academy.

"I think you l-look like a g-girl." Hinata's voice draws my eyes up to see her shy smile.

I know that she means well, but her supposed praise just makes me sigh. "Hinata, I'm as flat as a board, I've got narrow hips, I'm short, and I'm built like a pile of twigs." I hate describing myself this way, but it's about accurate. "And I'm so washed out that I look like a bad watercolor painting."

A small smirk curls Temari's lips. "Just give it a few years. Maybe puberty will be nice to you to make up for what it hasn't done so far." The slightly scathing comment, while a bit snarky and rude, gives me some hope. Maybe she's seen worse cases than mine. Or maybe she's just giving me false hope so that she can see me crack later. But whichever it is, I don't really care right now.

I just wish that I wasn't such a child.

* * *

 **Fun fact: I actually suffered from this as a child. Late blooming. I was basically as flat as a board until I was about fourteen and a half. Then, everything changed in the span of just a couple of months. Huge growth spurt in basically every area. Puberty hit like a train, and everything that should have happened over a couple of years happened in a single summer. And damn did it hurt, it was the most painful summer of my life (and I've had some pretty painful summer, since I'm not the type to do activities that are particularly safe, ex: cliff jumping, mountain biking, etc…). I've still got the stretch marks from growing so fast.**


	27. Preliminaries

**So…here comes some fluffy-ish teammate moments. Mostly, this chapter is meant to be cute-ish and funny for the first part, and a little serious later. I'm just going to try to slip in as many jokes as I can. Hopefully, I'll get some laughs.**

* * *

So, over the past few days, I've come to the conclusion that maybe the Sand team isn't as bad as I thought. Well, Temari is decent, anyway. It took her a little time to warm up to me, but she's…nice to me, sort of. And she's more than capable of holding up a conversation with me.

That's how I found out that her team is comprised of her and her two younger brothers. Which is weird, because they don't look alike at all. Especially with Kankuro avoiding me like the plague, and Gaara stealing glances at me all the damn time. It almost feels like he's stalking me sometimes. But I know that he isn't, because if he did, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not going to let him get away with it. Though not in so many words.

In fact, considering how Temari avoids most topics about her brothers, I'm surprised that Gaara hasn't pulled anything like he did that first night. I've found no sand following me, or grabbing at my clothes. Which is a good thing, otherwise he and I would have had some words, regardless of how badly he scares his siblings. If he tries anything, he's going to find out just how short my temper really is. And if his goal is to scare me, he's in for a long and painful battle.

But now, it's the last day of this round of the exam. Which means that in just a few hours, the last teams will be filtering in. So far, those of us here include Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, Temari, Kanukro, and Gaara. As well as Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru, who arrived yesterday. Then there's Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten, who arrived the day before. Then, there's also the team from the Hidden Waterfall who stumbled in last night. But they looked like they were in rough shape, and I haven't seen them since.

I saunter over to the common room for lunch, to find Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru lounging on the couches with food all over the place. Ino glances at me, giving me a haughty and disapproving look. She's never liked me, always fancying herself to be one of those popular girls. Which means that back at the academy, she wouldn't be caught dead associating with me for any reason other than to torment me.

Shikamaru and Chouji, on the other hand, used to run around with Naruto as kids, so I get on with them well enough. Which is why, once I've grabbed some food to eat, I drop down next to Shikamaru. "So, less than three hours left until the second exam ends."

Shikamaru looks up at me, his head right next to my leg, and his own legs hanging off the end of the couch. "This is all such a drag…why do we have to wait so long for the next round to start? It's not like anyone else is showing up anyway."

I chuckle quietly. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"What, are you still expecting Naruto and his team to show up?" I turn my head to see Kiba walking in, with Akamaru lounging on his head. "I'm winning that bet, you know."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." I'm still not convinced that I'm going to lose this bet. In fact, knowing Naruto, he'll be here in just less than three hours. After all, a hero arrives at the last second.

"Hold on, you two bet on whether or not Naruto's team was going to be here?" Chouji finally takes his face out of a bag of chips. Though I have no clue where he managed to find that in this tower. "When did this happen?"

I smirk at Kiba. "The second day, when we were all sitting around eating breakfast together. I was talking bout waiting for Naruto to show up, but Kiba believed that he wouldn't. Things were said, and now, when Naruto shows up, Kiba has to buy me dinner. And knowing Naruto…" I look up at the clock to check the time. "He should be here in about two hours and twenty seven minutes."

Shikamaru looks at the clock. "You're seriously expecting him to show up at the very last minute?"

"Of course!" I grin happily. "He's my best friend, I know his habits all too well. He's got a penchant for showing up at the last minute. But I'm sure that he'll show up just in time to save the day."

Kiba scoffs. "Yeah right. There's no way that squirt is going to make it here in time. He's probably lying out in the woods half-dead right now."

Everyone freezes, and I feel a familiar heat in my chest. It's got nothing to do with Suzaku, because this is one that I've had longer than him. "Lying out in the woods half-dead, huh? You really have no faith in him." I pick up the food I'd gotten from the table and hop over the back of the couch, approaching Kiba. "Even if no one else has faith in him, I always will. Keep that in mind."

I leave the common room without another word. It's better for my temper that I'm not around anyone right now. If I were, I would probably end up blowing up at them. And because of who and what I am, that could get very messy.

But as I shut myself in my room, I glance over to where my tanto and medical kit lie. _Well, I might as well take an inventory again, it's best to make sure that I'm not missing anything._ Depending on what the next exam entails, I might end up using most of my supplies. Because I get the feeling that we're finally getting to a one on one battle style exam. After a written test for intelligence, and a survival test for endurance, all that's really left is a battle test to check out everything else we can do.

Later, while I'm rearranging and replacing the supplies in my medical kit, some of my hair slips out of my headband and falls into my face. It's still a little damp from my bath earlier, so it looks darker than it normally does.

I run my hands through my hair, pulling my headband off my head as I do so. My fingers work through my hair, pulling it into three parts at the back of my head. Down my fingers go, plaiting the strands until the braid's end tumbles over my left shoulder and down past my collarbone. I reach into my bag, pulling out an empty bag, tied with a small ribbon. Slipping the ribbon from the bag, I tie it around the end of my braid, before flipping it back over my shoulder and tying my headband back around my forehead.

I reach for the two tanto lying next to my medical kit, smiling slightly at the Uchiha crests that adorn them. _I wonder what you two would say if you could see me now… Would you be proud of me for getting this far? Or would you be scared of what I'm capable of?_

The memory of those two pairs of dark eyes warms my heart as I strap their swords to my belts. My medical kit follows shortly, secured lightly to my belts. I like to keep it close, in case there's an emergency. But if I'm going to have any one on one fights today, then I need to be able to remove it quickly so that I can pass it off to Akito or Hiro. In a fight, the kit will only slow me down.

A knock on my door. "Ciara, you in there?"

"Yeah!" I stand up, straightening out my clothes as I walk to the door. And I open it to reveal Akito, smiling slightly. "What's up?"

Akito smiles. "You must have gotten distracted rearranging that kit of yours. We've got half an hour till the exam ends. The teams are supposed to gather on the first floor and wait for instructions on the next part of the exam."

"Only half an hour left!?" I must have zoned out while dealing with my kit, I had no idea hat time flew so fast. "Then what are we waiting for!?" I grab Akito's hand and bolt out the door. "Let's get downstairs! I want to see Kiba's face when Naruto shows up!"

"Well, he's not here yet, so…are you sure that he's going to show up?" Akito sounds a little unsure.

I, on the other hand, have no doubts. "I know that he's going to be here!" Then, a warm feeling blossoms in my heart. "I can feel him, he's close by!"

"Really?" Akito stops in his tracks, slowing me to a stop as well. "Hey…you're right!"

I grin eagerly. "Yeah, see! I told you so!" I pat my stomach, already imagining my prize. "Which means that Dog Boy owes me dinner!"

Akito chuckles and shakes his head. "Alright, then I guess I'll hang with Hiro tonight. Assuming that we're not going to get stuck somewhere for another week. Otherwise, you might have to postpone your date plans. By the way, nice hair."

"Who ever said it was a date?" I glare sourly at Akito, ignoring the compliment entirely. "Frankly, I would rather date you than Kiba. And no offense, but I really don't feel like dating you."

Akito just laughs louder. "None taken. Besides, I'm still trying to figure out your type. Once I do, I'll know who to watch out for. After all, I'm not going to just let some guy touch you without running it by me first."

"Excuse me?" I watch the first step on the stairs, since I'm pretty sure that Kiba tripped down it yesterday. "Who says that I need you to screen potential boyfriends for me? And who says I'm even old enough to be dating in the first place!?"

That earns me an eye roll from my teammate. "Well, I'm expecting you to develop an interest in boys in a couple of years, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared early, right?"

A sweatdrop rolls down from my temple. "I hope you realize that you're acting like an overprotective father, right?" At least, I think he is. Mine didn't live long enough to give me any lectures on boyfriends.

He shrugs. "Well, someone has to. And Hiro and I are more than happy to look out for you."

"I'm sure that you and Hiro would be perfectly happy looking at each other as well." It doesn't mean anything, I just wanted something to shoot back at him. But when I catch a glimpse of his face, I could swear that there's a pink hue to his cheeks, and he's stubbornly refusing to meet my gaze. "Uh…Akito?"

"Um…yeah? What is it?" He keep his eyes far away from me, and his answers remain short.

His behavior is rather suspicious. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

He swallow nervously. "Uh, yes, there is…"

I may not understand exactly what's going on, but I do understand that tone. "But…you don't want to talk about it, right?" He nods, so I sigh. "Alright, whatever. I know how important it is to keep some things close to your chest. So if it's not something I need to know yet, then just tell me whenever you're ready."

"Yeah…" The pink starts to fade from his cheeks as we walk down the first floor hallway.

And waiting there for us is Hiro, who has a bright grin on his face. "Hey, what took you two so long? I've been waiting forever!"

Akito looks like he's going to choke, so I wave my hand. "Akito had a mental breakdown. I think. Why don't you see if you can reboot his brain before the next part of the exam starts?"

"Will do." Hiro walks over to us and pushes the door open. "We're in here, there's less than twenty minutes left before the second exam officially ends, so the teams are slowly gathering in here."

"Good to know." I lead our team inside, and waiting there for us are the exam proctors, our sensei, and even Gramps.

Gramps looks at us, and I see a hint of a smile in his eyes. "Squad Twelve is here, good."

"Wouldn't miss this for the world, Gramps." I grin at the old man, not caring much for etiquette. Then again, it's not like he's ever really enforced etiquette on me and Naruto, which is why he's likely gotten used to being called Gramps, or Old Man. Then again, considering the stories I've heard about him falling for Naruto's Sexy Jutsu, I'm not sure how much respect the old man actually deserves…

A few more teams file in, and I take a head count. There's that team from the Sound, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara from the Sand, there's Squad Ten, Squad Eight, and then there's the team with Tenten, Neji, and Lee on it. The tea from the Hidden Waterfall limps in, two of their members really not looking so good. Normally, I would be happy to play medic, but I'm not healing anyone until I'm sure that I won't have to fight them today. That might be a little underhanded, but that's just the way things have worked out.

The next team to trudge in is another Leaf team, Kabuto's team. And they're looking a little worse for wear, but at least they're in one piece. Well, three pieces, but each member is in a single piece.

Then, Kakashi takes a spot up where the sensei are, and my heart soars. _If he's here, then that means that they've passed!_ I had no doubt that they would, but seeing Kakashi just makes me so happy. Though that also means that there are twenty seven of us here, nine whole teams. That should be impossible, considering how hard the exams have been so far.

Right on cue, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke walk in, looking even worse than the rest of the teams, with the exception of the Waterfall team. And most curiously, Sakura's once long pink hair is now short. _I wonder what happened to them…_

But as soon as Naruto sees me, his earlier grin widens and he waves. "Hey! We made it!"

I try desperately, but I can't contain my laughter. "Alright, Squad Seven is here! Which means that Kiba owes me dinner!"

"Huh?" Naruto's grin fades as confusion sets in. "What does us being here have to do with Kiba getting you dinner?"

Kiba groans quietly, so Shino answers quietly. "Kiba thought you wouldn't make it. Ciara bet you would."

"Exactly! I laugh again. "And the deal was that if you showed up, Kiba has to buy me dinner. But don't worry, I knew you'd show up, there's no way you would miss this."

"Of course not." Naruto's team lines up right next to mine. "But I can't believe you're getting dinner out of it."

I lean over and elbow him in the ribs. "Hey, I bet on you, which means that I believed in your abilities. Be flattered, because I never pick the wrong horse."

"Horse?" Naruto's mouth opens a little. I should have known that he wouldn't understand how some gambling works. Then again, this is hardly gambling, it was just a little fun for the sake of defending my friend's honor.

"Quiet, maggots!" Anko barks at us in annoyance, which shuts us up fast. "Now, first of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam!"

Everyone is sizing each other up. And there's some quiet conversation in the many rows, and I think that there's another sensei trying to pick a fight with Kakashi. _I wonder if he knows how futile that is…_

Then, I notice one of the sensei. His headband says that he's from the Sound Village. But there's something about him that creeps me out. It feels like there's an icicle being dripped down my back. Then, his eyes fall onto me, and I could swear that his lip curls a little, like he knows something I don't.

"Alright, now pay attention!" Anko draws my eyes away from the creepy sensei. "Now, Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you! You better listen carefully, maggots." She turns respectfully to the old man. "Lord Hokage, they're all yours."

Gramps nods, then steps forward to address us. "First, before I tell you what the third exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely, no, it's something that all of you need to understand. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams." He pauses for a moment. "Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies? To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations, to be sure, but it's important that you understand its true meaning. The exams are…so to speak…"

I frown slightly. _Well…then maybe you should stop beating around the bush. We're never going to understand the true meaning unless you're straight about it. Ibiki's vagueness is one thing, but yours is another entirely. Get to the point already…_

Clearing his throat, he continues. "They're a representation of the battle between allied nations. Now, if we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with, were neighboring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each other's military strength meaninglessly, those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin Selecton Exams originally began."

So, basically he's telling us that the origin of this exam was to choose people who were strong and smart enough to go off to war and come back victorious. It's high stakes, and back then, while it might have been an honor to pass the exam, it was also basically a death sentence. Though since he's referring to this as the origin, I'm guessing that it's no longer quite practiced like that.

Naruto scowls. "Well, that great, but why do we have to go through these exams, then? I mean, it's not like we're doing this to pick chunin to go fight."

"Well, actually…" Gramps puts his pipe back to his mouth. "There is no question that part of the point of these exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming chunin. That's just not the whole story. These exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs, and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

I cross my arms, feeling a little cross myself. _I sure hope that this isn't all about pride. Because that can turn to arrogance in a snap._

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this exam as guests. And also, possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles, and take note of the strengths that each ninja, and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between the countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja. And conversely, the requests to countries that are deemed weak decline." That makes sense, I suppose. "Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighboring countries. So it's important to show how much military strength our village has." And there's his political agenda seeping through.

"Okay, but even so, why's it necessary for us to risk our lives?" Kiba says that like he expected the life of a ninja to be peaceful and calm.

Gramps doesn't even blink at the interruption. "The country's strength is the village's strength, the village's strength is the shinobi's strength, and the true strength of the shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to its limits, such as in a life and death battle." That explains why he's so eager to push us into dangerous situations. "This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi, and hence, the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam where your life is on the line, that it has meaning. And it's for this very reason, and for the strength of the nation, that your forerunners fought in this exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

Tenten cringes. "But then, why did you use the expression 'friendship' before?"

Gramps sighs. "But you've only remembers half of what I said. You also musn't have the wrong idea of the exam's meaning. This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of the shinobi, that is friendship."

My eyes slide to my right, and I find Naruto there. _No, even in our world, friendship, true friendship, is the ability and willingness to fight at someone's back, not against them. It's when you can trust someone no matter what, and not get stabbed in the back for it. It's when, at the end of the day, you can step off a battlefield and still find a reason to laugh with someone. That's friendship._

"The third exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake." Gramps finishes that speech off with something of a dramatic flair. Though I can't say that I agree with everything that he's said.

"Any test is fine." Gaara's quiet voice rasps far to my right. "Just tell me what the details of the exam are, already. I can handle anything you throw at me."

Gramps smiles. "Very well, then. Now listen closely, I'm going to tell you exactly what you'll all be doing on the third exam."

Cutting Gramps off, a ninja appears in front of him. "Lord Hokage, before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed as proctor of the third exam, to speak first."

"So be it." Gramps leaves it to the proctor to speak first.

Hayate, this new proctor, turns around to look at us, and he looks rather sickly to me. "It's nice to meet you all." He coughs into his hand. "There's something…I would like all of you…" He coughs again. "To do before the third exam." He goes into a serious coughing fit for about ten seconds. "Uh…we have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."

My eyes shoot open at the news. _A preliminary? What for?_

"Preliminary!?" Unexpectedly, Shikamaru is the first to explode. "Just what do you mean by that!?"

"I'm sorry, Sensei, excuse me…" Sakura takes a calmer approach. "But I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary all about? Why can't we just move on to the third exam?"

"Uh…well you see…" His eyes flick over each of us, as though counting us. "The first and second exams might have been too easy. The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the chunin exams, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining."

"Uh, but is that fair?" Sakura starts to protest.

"Maybe they just don't want to admit that they've got a stronger group of candidates than they bargained for." I smirk at Gramps, who returns my gaze with a slight smile.

Hayate coughs again. "Yes…well, it's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important guests will be watching. We can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best." So what he's saying is that they want to weed out the ones that won't put on a good show. "So, if there are any of you who feel you're not in top physical condition, now's your chance to-" He coughs again, rather violently this time. "Sorry about that. As I was saying, if any of you don't feel up to this, now is the time for you to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately."

I don't even have to look back at my teammates to know that they're not going to budge on this. The three of us are in perfect health, so there's no way any of us are dropping out now.

"Come on, you mean right now!?" Kiba takes issue with that, though I don't see why, since we've all just been lazing around for a few days.

Ino, on the other hand, I can understand, they came in later. "We just finished barely surviving the last exam. Don't we get a break?"

"Oh yeah, uh…" Hayate hesitates. "The winners will be determined by one on one combat, sudden death. So, like I said, if anyone doesn't feel up to it, now's the time to raise your hand."

There's a sigh, from the waterfall team, and it's coming from the only one who looks like he's in good shape. He looks about fourteen years old to me. "Come on, you two, hands up." His teammates shoot him an incredulous look, but he's not having it. "With a broken leg and internal bleeding, you two are sitting ducks."

The two of them look to their sensei, who is up there with the others. And he nods silently. That prompts the both of them to raise their hands. Hayate nods, marking the two of them down on a list in his hands.

Over by the sensei ranks, Anko seems to be having some kind of argument with Kakashi. I hear Kakashi say Uchiha so I let my gaze drift back to Sasuke. And from the looks of it, he's in pain. Sakura is whispering something to him, and it looks like it's only making him angrier.

But, before Sakura can raise her hand to do anything, Kabuto raises his and calls attention to himself. "Okay, you got me, I'm out."

"But Kabuto…" Naruto looks almost devastated.

Hayate looks at his papers. "Kabuto Yakushi of the Leaf Village, right? Okay, you can go on and step back."

"Got'cha." Kabuto leaves his line and starts heading towards the exit.

But Naruto isn't going to just let him go like that. "Kabuto! Hold on a second! You can't quit!" He clenches his fist. "I don't get this! What's going on!?"

Kabuto stops, then looks back at Naruto. "Oh, Naruto…I'm sorry, but my body's just too beat up. I can;t hack it. The fact is, ever since orientation, and that dust-up with the Sound Village team, I've had no hearing at all in my left ear."

That alarms me, so I turn around, staring at Kabuto. "What?"

He looks at me sadly. "It's not your fault, something like that is complicated, and you're right, I need to see a specialist." He shakes his head and turns to Naruto. "And now, to have to put my life on the line, to fight again…right away, without a break? I can't do it." Kabuto waves goodbye, before walking off to the exit. But as he walks away, there's just something that doesn't sit right with me. I'm not quite sure what it is…but it's not good.

Hayate coughs. "Now then, does anybody else wanna quit?"

I glance back at Sasuke, and it seems like he's quietly chewing Sakura out for something. And from the looks of it, there's a lot of tension in his shoulders. That's not good, if he's going to fight, then he needs to relax.

But whatever he said to Sakura sets Naruto off fast. "Man, what are you biting her had off for? You idiot! It's just cause she cares about you!"

Sasuke's voice rises from a whisper. "Naruto." The two of them lock eyes. "You're one of the one I want to fight the most." Then his eyes shift. "But not the only one…" Suddenly, I have a pair of deep, onyx eyes staring into mine. There's nothing more to be said, because his intent is clear in his eyes.

I'm on his little hit list as well.

"Alright then, we'll now begin the preliminary round." Hayate's voice calls us all to attention. "This round will consist of one on one, individual combat at full battle intensity. This is not an exercise. There are twenty-four of you remaining, so that means we will need twelve matches. The surviving candidates from these twelve matches will advance to the third exam."That sounds rather ominous.

On the bright side, this is the kind of exam I was hoping for. I've been itching to get into some good one on one matches, and from the sounds of it, after this preliminary, we'll go into a tournament style exam. Which means that there should be some good matches in our future.

Hayate coughs. "As for the rules, there are none. You will fight until one dies or concedes defeat, or is rendered physically incapable of continuing the contest. Naturally, those who are losing are urged to concede defeat promptly to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor, I'm given a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches. I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless, to save as many lives as possible. Now, it's time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you." He turns towards the wall, where a panel moves aside to reveal an electronic board. "The names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random. Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. And as there's nothing more to say, let's begin. In a moment, the names of the first two opponents will appear."

The board bleeps on, then starts running through the names, a slightly annoying fast beeping accompanying it. Then, it begins to slow down, and finally, it stops. The two names glow yellow on the green background of the board.

The first match is decided.

* * *

 **Geez, the old man is long winded.**

 **Okay, so here's the deal. I can somewhat rearrange the fights, while still keeping things pretty canon. So, the question is, whose fight comes first? It's basically along the lines of who should get to see Ciara really fight…**

 **So, first up…**

 **Sasuke's fight against Yoroi?**

 **Hiro's fight against…Chouji?**

 **Akito's fight against Dosu?**

 **Or Ciara's fight against the waterfall ninja (I think I'm gonna name him Koichi Takamura, that sounds kind of cool)?**

 **One fight can (but doesn't have to) happen before Sasuke's, the next will happen either after Kankuro's or after Shikamaru's (depending on whether the first fight is Sasuke's or not), and the last fight will end the preliminary round. So if there are any preferences to the order, say so now.**


	28. Watching a Demon

**It's been a month since I last updated, and I am very sorry for that. I've basically been on silent until I got my creative juices flowing again.**

 **This chapter was way harder to write than I thought it was going to be. But, on the bright side, this story might just help to boost my skills in the realm of writing fight scenes. I swear to all that is holy, unholy, and otherwise supernatural that I really do suck at writing fight scenes quickly. Especially if I'm writing them from scratch. So, I've been filling it all in bit by bit as the words come to me, painstakingly slowly.**

 **Of course, it doesn't help that I've had horrid writer's block, and it's felt like I've had people looking over my shoulder as I write. I hate it when people do that, it's terribly uninspiring.**

 **So, as there has been no indication of an order preference, I'll just get things started with a bang, or ten. Also, I'll be putting in some Naruto P.O.V this chapter. And it's about time, I've been waiting to do P.O.V. for him for a while now. (And keep in mind that he's not nearly as stupid as the other characters seem to think, and things really do sound a lot better in your head rather than out loud most of the time.)**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

The first two names appear on the screen, announcing the combatants of the first match. Which means that everyone else is going to get to sit back and watch. The first is a name that I don't recognize. The other is mine.

 _Shit._ Well, to be fair, it's not like things tend to go my way anyway. Somehow, something always gets screwed up, though thankfully it's usually something minor. I suppose this just means that the others will have a chance to rest up while I'm on the floor, kicking someone else out of the exams.

The proctor coughs. "The first combatants are Koichi Takamura of the Hidden Waterfall, and Ciara Shiryugu of the Hidden Leaf. Any objections?" I shake my head slightly. It's not what I wanted, but I've got no reason to object now, at least, not one that would convince them to roll the names again. They've probably got a whole bunch of rules about objecting to opponent selection. For now, I just need to get past this round and on to the real fights.

Hiro claps me on the back. "Looks like you're up first." He's trying to be supportive, but unless he's as dumb as a brick, he can probably already tell that I'm not thrilled about this match-up. And I know him better than to assume that his intelligence is equal to that of a brick.

"Yeah…" My mouth goes a little dry. Frankly, I was hoping to fight someone…well, someone that I could actually have fun fighting. I mean, I don't even know this Takamura guy. There's no real motivation to fight him. I would even prefer to fight one of those Sound ninja, since I owe them a little payback for the stunt they pulled last week. But it's too late to do anything about that now.

"If the other candidates would please relocate to the upper level, we'll start the first match." Hayate looks up to the two balconies that ring the room. There are stairs leading up to them for easy access.

The other teams start making their way up to the viewing decks with their sensei, but before Akito and Hiro leave me, Takamura frowns at me. "Seriously? I get the tiny girl?" He looks me up and down. "Your teammates had to carry you here, didn't they? There's no way you would have survived in that forest."

 _That does it._ On the inside, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm growling a little for that remark. I reach around to my back and unhook my medical kit from my belts. "Akito, hold onto this for me, I'm not going to need it for this fight."

"You sure?" Akito holds my kit gingerly. "Are you going to be okay like this?"

"Oh, I'll be fine." I stare irritably at Takamura. "But…I hope you two don't mind if I go ahead and do things at my pace. It might take a few minutes, but I'm feeling a little restless."

I hate feeling restless, since it makes me feel like a bird in a cage. I'm not sure if it's me or Suzaku feeling this way. Sometimes, I wonder if it's not just our minds and our chakra that can touch, but our emotions as well. Either way, it's not pleasant feeling.

"Alright…" Akito glances at me worriedly. "Just be careful." He pats me on the shoulder, before following Hiro up to the viewing deck.

I let my eyes find their way to the ceiling. _Forty feet high…_ They wander back down and around the room. _Seventy feet long…and forty feet across._ It should be more than enough room for me to fight. Although, depending on how this goes, they might need to effect some repairs later.

Walking towards the middle of the room, my muscles start tensing a little, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. However, attacking me seems to be the last thing on Takamura's mind, judging by the relaxed posture of his body. He scrutinizes me, distinctly lacking any worry in his face. "Let me give you a piece of advice. Forfeit now, and you won't get hurt." He sounds almost bored.

Knowing that he doesn't even consider me to be a worthwhile opponent makes me mad, but as I open my mouth to retort a hand comes down firmly on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "I wouldn't be underestimating my student if I were you." I look up and over my shoulder to see Yuki-Sensei with a cheeky smile on her face. "My students are quite exceptional little talents."

A hot blush rises to my face at her praise. Then, the heat fades from my cheeks as my eyes drop back down to the face of the boy in front of me. "Don't worry, Sensei, I'll try not to do any permanent damage." But there's no promises made that I won't hurt him a little.

She ruffles up my hair a little, before joining Akito and Hiro in going up the stairs. Hayate coughs slightly with the departure f the last of the spectators. "If the two of you are ready, you may begin the match." He steps back, getting well out of the way so that the match can begin.

Takamura continues to watch me, an irritated smirk on his face. "Are you sure that you don't want to give up? It'll be less humiliating for you if you just give up now."

This guy's constant urging for me to give up is really getting on my nerves. I know full well that sometimes, it's a good idea to run, to not engage the enemy when you are highly disadvantaged. But this is not one of those times, and I can see that clearly. "Not a chance. So stop trying to convince me, because you're wasting your breath." I am not at a disadvantage. Because I highly doubt that this guy is anything like me. And I doubt he's seen anything like me before.

And now, I've got my motivation.

His brow furrows a little, and he reaches back to the weapons pouch he carries. "Fine, then I'll end this quickly. Just remember that I warned you. Assuming you survive this."

He springs at me, his fingers flicking a kunai out of the pouch and firmly into his grip. He twirls the kunai around in his hand, lunging for me with the sharp blade. All I can really say for him is that he's fast, and he's got good aim. Other than that, I can't really see where all of that damn cockiness is coming from.

That is, until he gets within five feet of me, and suddenly, his two kunai turn into eight. Oops. He slashes at me with them, letting them act like claws instead of knives.

Fortunately, my speed is not something to be underestimated. Not only am I light and fast, but I've got plenty of experience running away from enraged chunin, whenever Naruto gets the brilliant idea to drag me along when he gets in trouble. Outrunning and dodging these claws aren't really as hard as outrunning Iruka-Sensei.

Using my inferior height and superior speed, I duck down and race underneath the arc of his kunai. And by the time he turns around to hurl the eight kunai at me, I'm already picking up speed. And luckily for me, I'm starting to get a sense for the rhythms of his attacks, the speed, angle, and even the timing. Which is good, considering that I'm not too sure how long I'd last if I were forced into hand to hand combat. Speed doesn't help much if there's no force behind it.

A whisper in the air tips me off to his next attack. Meanwhile, my left hand twitches, and a flash of silver enters my field of vision as a round of shuriken come flying at me, explaining the sound I heard. Now, I've practiced plenty with shuriken and kunai, but not very much with short-swords, and certainly not with the tanto strapped to my back. But Chi-Chi must have known that blades of this length would suit me, because it feels quite natural to slip Shi-Shi's blade from its sheath and whip it past my face, sending the shuriken flying away like ping-pong balls.

With my legs moving faster than my brain, I leave it to my instincts to take me out of Takamura's reach as quickly as possible. And rather than hitting the ground, running, I hit the wall with both feet, defying any and all attempts of gravity to rein me back in. Something that I've become rather good at over the years, and that drove Iruka up the wall, and myself onto the ceiling.

The whistling in the air tells me that there are more shuriken headed my way. But with a blade in my hand, I simply spin around, still attached to the wall, and swat them away. The resounding clang echoes through the room, along with the thuds of the shuriken that sink into the floor. Moments later, the blade slices through the air in front of me, and another set of shuriken, as well as a couple of kunai go flying into the opposite wall.

As I dance through the onslaught of a seemingly endless assault, I feel as though I'm acting more on instinct than anything else. I've never really trained with weapons like this, so it's the only explanation I have. Sure, I did perfectly fine during class when it came to throwing shuriken and using kunai, but for my first time actually wielding Shisui's tanto in a fight, I'm doing much better than I thought I would be. Though compared to what I saw him do when I was a child, I'm a hopeless amateur.

I run along the walls, continuing to dodge the rain of shuriken. And this guy must really have a magical never-ending supply of them, because it seems like no matter how many I dodge, he's always got more to throw. No one can possibly carry this many shuriken without being impossibly obvious abut it. There has to be at least sixty of them embedded in the floor and walls.

Then, kunai shoot past me burying themselves into the wall in front of me. It takes me a second to process them and see that these ones are different, that they have exploding tags tied to the ends of each of them. Oh…shit. In an instant, his plan becomes clear, and I'm about to get a face full of fire. I quickly hold my hands in front of my face to hold the coming attack at bay.

Moments later, as everything in sight starts exploding, I take my chance. Bearing the shallow pain caused by the heat and shockwave, I let chakra flow to my feet, gathering it there quickly, and I jump. I shoot straight up through the smoke, landing on the ceiling without a sound, my chakra attaching me to the smooth surface.

* * *

Naruto's P.O.V.

As the dust begins to settle, Takamura is down there, grinning from ear to ear. And as for my best friend, she's nowhere in sight. And I've got no clue why.

"Well, it looks like I win, doesn't it?" Takamura smirks down on the floor. "Must have been weaker than I thought, if there's nothing left of her. Guess all that confidence of hers was just for show. Running away was all she was good for."

Alright, sure, that explosion was strong, but there's no way it could have beaten her. There's just no way. And it doesn't explain why there's no trace of her down there. If she were really beaten, then she would at least be down there unconscious, instead she's just…gone. I mean, I know that she's really good at disappearing and reappearing when she wants to, but this isn't the time to play hide and go seek.

"D-do you think he…" Sakura swallows nervously. "Do you think she's been…vaporised?"

I turn to look at Sakura. _Vaporised!?_ I can't believe she could think something like that. "No way!" There's no way in hell that Ciara would ever let herself get vaporised. She's way tougher than that.

"I don't know…that explosion was pretty strong…" Kakashi is so not helping right now. "Or she could just be hiding. After all, looks can be deceiving."

Sasuke's eyes narrow at the floor below. "What's she playing at?" He's as cryptic as ever. _Bastard…_

 _But…that's a good question…_ I turn my eyes back to the floor. _Ciara likes to have fun, even in a fight. Like back in the Land of Waves, on the bridge. It's like she turned that fight into a dance. So she's probably planning the last thing anyone expects. Iruka found that out whenever he had to yell at her to get her off the-_

 _No way…_

My eyes snap straight up and I look at the ceiling. "You…have got to be kidding me!" _Well…I guess I really am an idiot. And I call myself her best friend? How did I not see that coming!? Ugh! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_

"Huh?" Sakura looks at me, then follows my gaze to the ceiling. "What!?"

Kneeling as though paying respect to a superior, though upside down and attached to the ceiling, is Ciara. Now that we've spotted her, it doesn't take long for everyone else in the room to look up as well. And it looks like she's taking a deep breath for some reason. _What's she trying to do!?_

One of her teammates, Akito, I think, puts his hand on my head in a panic. "Everyone, get down!" And mimicking him, their other teammate, Hiro, grabs Sasuke and Sakura, pushing them down and away from the railing.

They must know something that the rest of us don't, because as I hold my arms up to protect myself, there's a huge flash of light, and it gets really hot, really fast as a wave of fire fills the room.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

 _*Flashback*_

 _I look up at Shisui, shifting a little in his lap. "Please, Shi-Shi! Teach me how to breathe fire!"_

 _His warm arms shift a little as he drops his chin on top of my head. "Maybe when you're a bit bigger, okay? You still don't know how to control chakra yet."_

 _His resistance to my request makes me pout. "But I wanna learn! I wanna breathe fire like a dragon!"_

 _"Like a dragon, huh?" Soft laughter makes his chest rumble. "But you're still too little to breathe fire. I could show you, but you won't be able to do it yet." He tilts his head slightly. "Why do you want to learn now, anyway? You're only four."_

 _"But Shi-shi…"_

 _*Flashback End*_

Well, I've certainly learned how to breathe fire now. And done entirely without my uncle's help. The flames from my mouth bathe the space in front of me in fire. Thanks to Akito, all of the candidates on the viewing deck have at least gotten some warning. Takamura, on the other hand, has gotten none.

A smile curls my lips as the flames pouring from my mouth begin to die down. I've covered the whole floor in flames, which is what I consider to be payback for Takamura's earlier attempt to blow me to kingdom come. Not that he would have succeeded. I may be small, but that doesn't mean that I'll let myself keel over from one little explosion. Though I'm not too pleased about the ends of my hair getting singed.

As the flames dissipate, I stay attached to the ceiling. Better to be safe than sorry, so I'll wait until I see Takamura on the floor. Luckily for him, I'm not fond of the idea of killing, so those flames were hardly hot enough to burn him to a crisp. They were showy, sure, but those red-orange flames are fairly cool, compared to what my father could make them.

Finally, I catch sight of him stumbling through the flames. _There you are…_ I drop from the ceiling, pulling out the tanto strapped to my back, they slide out of their sheaths with a soft metallic tone. The fire burns itself out around us until there's barely anything left. And while Takamura coughs into his sleeve, I take the chance to go on the offensive.

I can't afford to give him a chance to draw me into close combat. At least…not with weapons or hand to hand fighting involved. So, that leaves me with one good option that I can use from any distance. So right now, I'm closing in on him. And I plan to end this right now.

Weaving the signs in an instant, I let my chakra shoot to my hand and close in to point blank range. My hand slashes upward, a blunt blade of wind erupting from the tips of my fingers. The bright, nearly silver wind blade slams into Takamura's chest and hurls him away from me, straight into the opposite wall.

The cloud of dust kicked up by the impact spreads outward from Takamura's location. And in the wall behind him is the evidence of the force of the impact. Cracks spread out in all directions, resembling something along the lines of a spider's web.

And not even a sound comes from him. _Damn, I must have hit him harder than I thought. I was just trying to subdue him, not knock him out cold._ But knock him out cold, I did, and a moment later, his body loses strength and falls away from the shallow crater in the wall.

As Takamura collapses to the floor in a nearly immobile heap, I look up to all of the spectators, and see more than a few looks of awe, shock, and confusion. As well as a few people who are blinking hard or rubbing their eyes. It's actually rather satisfying to see such a diverse collection of reactions. I'm sure that very few people were expecting a match like this to kick off the preliminaries.

Looking at my teammates, the two of them are just grinning knowingly. They're the ones who saw this coming a mile away. And I'm pretty sure I heard the two of them yelling at some point while I was breathing fire. Hopefully my little display didn't end up hurting anybody.

On the other hand, the Sand team is reacting rather humorously. Temari and Kankuro are staring at me with wide eyes, while Gaara's sharp eyes look like they're trying to see right through me. I guess I must have proven myself to be more than they expected. And I'm planning on doing much more than that in the next round.

The looks that I don't like are coming from the Sound team, most notably, their sensei. He's looking at me with wide eyes, but there's only a little shock and surprise in them. In fact, he's smiling, almost eagerly, hungrily. It's like he's looking at a delicious dinner laid out before him, but can't touch it, though he would give almost anything just for a taste. It's a look that threatens to send shivers down my spine. And my instincts are screaming at me that this man is dangerous. Like greed and malice have been made tangible.

I turn away from the creepy sensei and look up at Naruto, who has a bright, wide grin on his face. And behind me, the proctor coughs. "Winner of the first match, Ciara Shiryugu."

At first, there's silence. Then, Naruto's voice rings out loudly across the room. "Yeah! You did it! That was awesome!"

A smile blooms on my face and I stare up into his sparkling blue eyes. "Was there ever any doubt?" I already know the answer to that question. No matter what others may have thought of my chances, Naruto definitely had faith in me the entire time.

My words quickly have Akito and Hiro laughing loudly, and even cold, stoic Sasuke is smirking down at me. Sakura's wide eyes and surprised smile make way for an even brighter smile. "Yeah! You did it!"

Looks like I've got a cheering section. Though I get the feeling that our two teams are mostly going to collectively be a single cheering section. That's fine, though. I'm rather fond of the idea of everyone on our two teams moving on to the next round. So if that means cheering each other on, then that's perfectly alright with me.

But now, there are other important things to attend to. I turn my gaze back onto Takamura. Ignoring the proctor, I walk over to my downed opponent and kneel down next to him. _He's got to have taken some serious damage from that…_ I look him over carefully. _Suzaku, do you think that you could help me a little?_

A warmth blossoms inside me, familiar and comforting. _Of course, chick. Your kindness does you credit. Even in a mock battle, you care for the well-being of your opponent… That is certainly something to admire._

 _Yeah…_ I let the warmth flow through me, and even into my eyes. And not entirely at my command, my eyes sweep over the boy in front of me, searching for the problem. _Maybe…a concussion? I did throw him pretty hard._

 _That would be my guess as well. Treat him quickly, the next match needs to start soon._

 _Okay._ I move my hand over his head, and it glows softly as chakra pours out of me and into his body. I must have some kind of soft spot for injured people. I remember even feeling bad about the way Haku and Zabuza looked after our battles with them.

Beneath my hand, Takamura quickly begins to stir. He groans and his eyes flutter open. "What…what happened?"

"I knocked you out when I slammed you into the wall, that's what." I roll my eyes slightly. "I'm just making sure that you don't have a serious concussion or anything."

A frown appears on his face as his eyes find mine. Then, they widen, and not in surprise, but in fear. "Demon…you're one of those…things!"

It's almost like an electric shock runs though my hand as I jerk it away from him. "What?"

He rolls over and eyes me angrily. "Stay away from me, monster!"

It's a phrase I've heard before, though never directed at me. The heat fades from my body, leaving me feeling rather cold, even alone. I know this feeling, but it's the first time I've ever felt it myself.

It's the first time I've been called a monster, just like Naruto. All this time, it's been me standing up for him, me comforting him, me telling him that he's not a monster. And even though I'm so much like him, I was always, mercifully, still outside much of the scorn.

But now, I'm no different. Now, I'm a monster like him.


	29. A Malevolent Mark

**Long Author's Note ahead, but I kinda feel like there's a few things I need to argue and justify. Plus, this should be good practice for my upcoming semester of writing essays to argue a point. Lots of homework ahead.**

 **So, I just got back to campus, and I'm settling in pretty well. My roommate is nice, and my dorm building has a lot of...interesting characters in it. Unfortunately, my laptop decided to die about two or three weeks ago, and it needs to go in for repairs. That's slowed my updating down considerably. But, thanks to the abundance of computers here at school, I should be able to get right back on track. (It also helps that my Scrivener program also saves most of the documents in word files that I can access on these computers, I just got desperate enough to click around in the hopes that I could get something to work, and I found most of what I need to start updating again).**

 **Now, I have to admit that I wasn** **'** **t expecting such nice reviews for that last chapter. I also didn't think that the fighting was all that well described. But…then again, I'm not a great judge of how my own scenes come off since it's all a lot more fluid and detailed in my head. But it's a good start, and I'll try to make the coming fight scenes as good as I can.**

 **Also, I** **'** **m going to be going through each of the fights, and there's a reason for it. First of all, there's going to be a lot of stuff going on in between the fights (such as with Hinata vs. Neji, and Gaara vs. Lee) as well as during the fights (such as Naruto vs. Kiba). Though, minor battles that don't last for very long (like Shino vs. Zaku, Kankuro vs. Misumi, Temari vs. Tenten, and Shikamaru vs. Kin) will probably be smushed together, two to a chapter. It all depends on how much there is for Ciara to learn, analyze, or interfere with during each match.**

 **There are also going to be instances where, while watching the fights, Ciara is going to come up with interesting ideas and observations. Now, some of it might not seem to make sense, or certain things might not seem to matter right now. But keep in mind that these are the early chapters, which means that I** **'** **ve still got a lot of groundwork to lay, and these fights are going to be a huge part of that. Consider this to be the warning about the foreshadowing that will be showing up in the next half dozen or so chapters. So don't complain about this being pointless, because it's not, even if it might seem like it.**

 **Last up, remember to keep in mind that this all happens before Sasuke gets super angry and bitter. He** **'** **s still "kinda nice" at this point. You know, protective and all that. So he's not going to be acting or thinking like the angry, bitter, vengeful Sasuke we know later. He's a little curious, and hates it when there's something he doesn't know. So, if he wants to know something, then he'll go and brood about it. Just reminding you of that. This is** **before ****the drastic personality change. He hasn** **'** **t gone full-blown asshole yet.**

 **Now, as a treat for making it through the author's note. Please, go ahead and take a very long chapter.**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

Stunned by the downright hostile reaction that I've gotten from Takamura, I get to my feet and back away. I turn my eyes away, not deigning to spare the idiot another glance. And it's all I can do to hope that his words were too quiet for everyone else to hear. There is no longer a heat in my eyes. No comforting warmth. In fact, most of my body feels rather cold right now. I hate it, but there's nothing to be done about it as Takamura's words ring in my head.

Monster. Demon.

They're words that ring in my head, bringing forth all of the memories that I try to keep buried deep inside my heart. Until now, I've done my best to play the part of a protector, standing up for Naruto whenever someone says something they shouldn't. Whenever nasty glares and hateful looks turn his way, I shoot glares right back. But this time, it's not Naruto that the evil slur is directed at. It's very different when you go from being the protector, to being the one now hunted. And it's not a pleasant feeling.

 _Chick_ _…_ _do not dwell on his words. You are no more a monster than I am. And humans simply label me as such, for they do not understand me, a being with more power than they can comprehend, but more compassion than they realize. I will never hurt you. Unlike the one who dwells inside of your friend, I am above causing pain to humans for the enjoyment of it. And in a select few, I find them to be good company._ Suzaku's words echo through me, filling me with an almost physical expression of his presence. And thanks to his words, a little of the cold is driven away.

I turn my back to the boy who was once my opponent, letting the medical team race past me as I head for the stairs. I don't feel like being down here any longer. And right now, I'd really rather be next to my best friend. Because some days, it feels like he's the only one I can really trust.

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

That was definitely not how I expected that match to go. I mean, I've seen some surprisingly impressive moves coming from Ciara since we graduated from the academy, but this match is definitely a step above anything I've seen so far. Though the instance of going head to head with Zabuza and aiming wind blades at his face while bouncing off his sword might be a close second. The jury's still out on that one. Even I'm not sure where I would cast my vote.

Before the start of the first exam, I'd wondered if she was related to the Uchiha. The only place I've seen a fire jutsu that powerful was from members of my clan. But it's all impossible, and for several reasons. The first being that if she was, she would be dead, just like all the others. And the second, because she clearly doesn't look like one. Where her hair and eyes are much lighter and more colorful than mine, her skin is darker. It's about as far from a typical Uchiha as you can get without being blond and blue-eyed, like a certain idiot I hope to fight later.

But that power of hers, on the other hand, is definitely dangerous. After all, if she had added much more chakra, she might have fried us all to a crisp. But if Kabuto's information and my math are right, then she wouldn't have had anyone from her own family to teach it to her. So that makes me wonder exactly how she's managed to get to this kind of skill level so quickly. _I wonder if this is what Kabuto was talking about when he said that it was impossible to estimate her potential_ _…_

Meanwhile, the electronic board starts shuffling through names again as the medics take that Takamura guy from the room. But rather than the board, it's the combatant still standing that draws my thoughts. After all, she put him down with a surprising ease. But she's hardly celebrating her win like she should be. There's no wild happiness about her win, not even a little bright enthusiasm. She isn't even smiling.

Instead, there's a look of utter devastation on her face, hidden behind a fragile mask of boredom. I've seen that bored expression on her before, though it never seemed so forced. I can definitely understand her having been bored at the academy, even though I used to assume that she was just slacking like Naruto and Shikamaru. Her skills would indicate that she wasn't slacking, but that she was just literally bored out of her mind because she was secretly way ahead of the class. Which is precisely my reason for wanting a chance to go up against her before this is all over.

But behind the boredom is a look that I used to see in the mirror, back even before she joined our class. My fists clench uncomfortably as a few stray memories race through me. Because I heard what that guy called her. _Why did Takamura call her a demon? She may be strong, but that_ _'_ _s no reason to call her a monster. Right?_

The curse mark on my shoulder throbs slightly, but I grit my teeth and bear the pain. The less people know about it, the better. I don't want anyone trying to stop me from fighting in my match. The board flashes, and a smirk curls my lips. _Well, seems like I_ _'_ _ll be getting my match soon, after all._

I turn towards the stairs, ready to get on with this match. I've been standing around for so long that I've started to feel really restless. If I had to wait around much longer, I would probably go insane. I glance over at the other Leaf ninja moving from the upper floor. _That must be my opponent._

But, just as I get to the top of the staircase, Kakashi puts a hand on my shoulder and bends down, close to my ear. "Don't use your Sharingan."

I stop a sudden jolt of surprise, before a wry smile makes itself known. "So, you know about it." I suppose that he wouldn't have become a jounin if he didn't know how to observe people.

He sighs slightly. "If that mark gets out of control, your life could be in danger."

I grit my teeth irritably. "I'm aware of that." _Like he needs to tell me what this damn mark is doing to me_ _…_ _It's done nothing but cause me pain so far._

"Just so you know, if it gets to that point, I'll have to step in and stop the fight." He finishes his speech and just backs away to rejoin Sakura. "Good Luck."

But, it's hardly the news I was expecting to hear. _Stop the fight!?_ The mark starts to itch again, so I raise a hand to it and cover it, remembering as much as I can from the past few days. _This thing_ _…_ _it seems to be responding to my chakra. If I use my chakra, this thing gets a little stronger…it gains a little more control over me._ This is one of those instances where I hate not being in total control. _I have to fight him without using my Sharingan. Even my own jutsu is off limits._ It takes all my self control not to groan. _Maybe I can make him laugh himself to death._ That would certainly be one way to conceal my abilities from the other ninja here. And it's not a match that people would forget in a hurry.

As I walk down the stairs, I nearly run straight into Ciara. She looks rather dazed right now, and I guess it doesn't help that I've had my eye on my opponent this whole time. Luckily, I manage to avoid knocking her right back down the stairs.

She glances up at me, the dazed expression softening a little. "Hey, Sasuke." Her voice is quiet, a lot quieter than most times I've heard her speak.

"Hey." I feel like I should say something. Any expression is better than the one on her face right now. "Good match."

She blinks, and a little more light returns to her eyes. "Thanks." Then, she frowns. "You've used your Sharingan lately, haven't you?"

 _She knows?_ We only met up once in the forest, and that was before any of the fighting started, so there's no way that she should know that I used my Sharingan. "Yeah. How'd you know?" _She must have seen my Sharingan when we were in the Land of Waves, that_ _'_ _s the only way she would know about it._

She climbs up three more steps so that her eyes are just above mine. "Your eyes are a bit swollen. Just like the last time."

 _My eyes are swollen?_ I reach up to my eyes and run my fingers around them. _She_ _'_ _s right…the muscles around my eyes are swelling up. Or maybe the swelling is going down, since it's been a while since I used them. So that's how she knew…they must have swollen up after the fight with the ice ninja._

"Here, let me help." Her voice calls for my attention again, but in the moment that I spaced out, she's placed her hand on top of my head, pulling my head forwards and pressing her lips right between my eyes.

 _What the hell!?_ I barely have enough time to process that she actually just did that, before she pulls away and smiles faintly. "Now, go out there and kick his ass."

"Right…" My eyes narrow at her slightly, and my brain is running a mile a minute, trying to come up with some kind of explanation for that. I'd be lying if I said that it was the first time a girl tried to kiss me, but if I had to guess, I'd assume that theirs wouldn't burn like that one did. The skin of my forehead feels like it's on fire, and my eyes feel a bit like they're burning as well.

Luckily, no on seems to have seen that, so I won't have anyone screaming in my ear, demanding to know what just happened. But I rub my forehead slightly, and the burning in my eyes dims to a soothing warmth. And then, I feel the chakra. _Is she_ _…_ _healing me?_ I rub my forehead a little more, before pressing my fingers around my eyes. _The swelling is gone_ _…_

I glance back at her as she disappears over the top of the stairs. _So_ _…_ _that's what that was…_ She wasn't trying to kiss me like all of those annoying girls from the academy, she injected chakra into my forehead to settle the swelling around my eyes. _She could have just said so_ _…_

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

I climb up the few remaining stairs and walk along the upper floor. Luckily, Naruto's team stakes out the place closest to the stairs, so I don't have far to walk to get to my best friend. I don't have the energy right now to navigate through a whole mess of other teams. Because it's taking everything I have just to keep myself from shaking.

I may have won, but this doesn't feel like a victory.

It takes me only a couple of seconds to weave around Kakashi and Sakura, to find myself at Naruto's side. And though I never expected him to be a calm pillar of support, I can feel him shaking. And his anger is so thick that it's almost tangible.

"Why the hell did you let that jerk talk to you like that!?" There's a hiss to his voice that almost sounds like a snake. But I suppose that I should have expected this, after all, the best friend deal goes both ways. I want to attack the people who hurt him, and I suppose that it's only natural for him to get this angry over people hurting me.

Nevertheless, I refuse to let it show. "Because it wasn't worth fighting him over." _And because I would rather avoid drawing the attention of everyone else in the room_ _…_

Naruto's anger quickly bubbles to the surface, and a scowl forms on his face. "Are you kidding me!? That guy had no right to say that! He has no idea what he's talking about!"

 _You have no idea how wrong you are, Naruto_ _…_ I still haven't told him that one last secret that I've been trying to keep buried since I was little. Though the way things are going, it looks like he's bound to find out any day now, so I'll just have to hope that I'm ready to explain everything to him when it gets out. "Naruto, shouldn't you be focusing on the next match? Sasuke is about to fight." I direct my eyes down to the floor, where Sasuke and his opponent are facing each other. And according to the electronic board, his opponent's name is Yoroi Akado. He's a Leaf ninja, like us.

"Fine…" Naruto grumbles a little, but his right hand crawls towards my left hand anyway, tangling a few of our fingers together as he squeezes gently. It's a small gesture that means the world to me. It means that no matter what, we'll never abandon each other. We're in this together, and we both know it.

Down on the floor, the proctor looks to each of them, his ashen skin pulling tight over his gaunt face. "If you're ready, let the match begin." He steps back, giving the two plenty of room to have at each other.

"Oh, I'm ready." Yoroi crouches down, his hands pressed together, ready to attack.

Sasuke reaches back towards his weapons pouch, determination plain on his face. "So am I."

Yoroi reaches back, making his first offensive move an assault of shuriken that go flying through the air. Sasuke, of course, already has a kunai ready and waiting for them when they get close. I, however, am more concerned with the fact that Yoroi has concentrated chakra into his right hand. From the looks of it, if I didn't know any better, I would assume that he was looking to use some kind of medical ninjutsu. But this is a battle, and I doubt that he's looking to heal Sasuke in the middle of a fight.

As the shuriken go flying back at Yoroi, Sasuke loses his balance, and goes tumbling right down to the floor. And even after five days out in the Forest of Death, that strikes me as very odd. _Hey_ _…_ _Suzaku?_

 _Yes, chick?_ His response is fast and warm, which is quite comforting, in a way. _Is there something troubling you?_

 _Yeah_ _…_ _something is wrong with Sasuke, even after I did what I could for his eyes. Do you have any idea what's going on down there?_

 _Hm_ _…_ _allow me to help you find out. But keep your eyes hooded. I doubt that you want any more attention today._

 _Right_ _…_ I sweep my bangs over my forehead, obscuring my eyes from the rest of the competitors in the room. And my gaze focuses down on Sasuke as my eyes start to burn slightly. My eyes find the place where Sasuke is holding a hand over his skin, where his neck meets his shoulder, but angled more towards his back. It's a strange place to be holding, considering that he definitely didn't fall on it, and he didn't get hit by any of the shuriken either. _So what exactly is he hiding there_ _…_ _?_

Yoroi springs at Sasuke, a kunai in his hand. Reacting quickly, Sasuke rolls over, his hand detaching from his neck as he rolls over, exposing the skin there long enough for me to catch a glimpse of something dark imprinted there. _A bruise? But I injected him with enough healing chakra that even if it wasn_ _'_ _t the main target, no bruise that close to his face should be that dark._

 _Then perhaps it is not an injury_ _…_ Suzaku's voice echoes in my head as he muses over what I've seen. _It may be nothing, but I can sense a malevolent power inside of that boy. And it must be new, because I had not sensed it during the first trial a week ago. Whatever it is, we should keep an eye on him_ _…_

I'm not a big fan of spying on people just for kicks. But if keeping an eye on Sasuke could help protect him, then I'll definitely do it. _Okay, but if you figure anything out, tell me. If there_ _'_ _s something putting his life in danger, I would rather know sooner than later._

 _Indeed_ _…_ The heat in my eyes recedes, along with Suzaku's presence. But it's also been a comfort. After what happened at the end of my battle, it feels good to hear his voice. Because every time I hear him speak, it just reminds me that no matter what anyone else might think, the friend I have inside of me is good, not evil.

I turn my full attention back to the battle as Sasuke digs his kunai into the ground and sweeps his legs around, trying to upend Yoroi. And it works, he gets Yoroi on the ground with almost no problems, trapping him in a hold that threatens to break his neck. It's even more impressive, considering the significant size difference between the two of them.

Naruto's earlier frown disappears, replaced by a bright and eager smile. "Hey! He got him!"

If only that were the only thing going on…

Yoroi, taking the opportunity presented to him, fills his hand with chakra, and grabs the front of Sasuke's shirt. And even without enhanced vision, I can easily see the way that Sasuke's muscles are going slack. That allows Yoroi to extricate his arm and slam it down onto Sasuke's chest. The force didn't look like it was enough to break ribs, but depending on Sasuke's condition, it might have been enough to crack them.

Yoroi slips away, leaving Sasuke convulsing on the ground. _Yeah_ _…_ _he's definitely winded, at least. There might be a few cracked ribs, and maybe a slightly cracked sternum. But nothing is broken, because he's breathing well enough to sound like he's in pain, but he's not wheezing or choking enough to indicate a punctured lung._ It's a morbid way of looking at it, but in most cases, injuries are less severe if you're capable of expressing that you're in pain. It's when you can't express it that there's the most damage.

As Yoroi springs forward for another attack, Sakura grips the railing tightly. "Sasuke, no!"

At the sound of Sakura's voice, Sasuke sits up in a panic, only to be attacked by Yoroi, who grabs onto Sasuke's hair and pushes his head back down to the ground. Sasuke struggles fiercely, though only for a moment. Because barely two seconds later, his limbs go limp and fall to the ground.

 _But that can only happen if_ _…_ I grit my teeth and my fingers tighten around the metal railing. _Yoroi is sucking up Sasuke_ _'_ _s chakra. He has to be. There's no other explanation for what's going on._ It's like reversing the principles of medical ninjutsu, which would explain the familiarity of his earlier technique.

It's hard to watch Sasuke being overpowered this way. But what really ticks me off is the way Yoroi is laughing about it. What he's doing down there is akin to torture. On the other hand, it's a very effective way to use the principles of medical ninjutsu in a battle. Normally, I would commend him for his skill. But seeing as he's got Sasuke pinned to the ground, I'll settle for glaring instead.

Sasuke groans rather pitifully. "My chakra, you're stealing it from me." And if the rest of the room hadn't realized it yet, they know now.

Yoroi continues to laugh. "You finally caught on, huh?" His smug attitude demonstrates that he doesn't care about everyone here finding out how his abilities work. That might very well lead to his downfall, if he manages to beat Sasuke and make it to the next round.

Not that I'd want him to. After all, I'm in Sasuke's corner.

I stare at Sasuke, silently willing him to get back up. Even if his chakra is being drained, I don't expect him to just lie down and die. Though that's what Yoroi looks like he's planning on making happen. I'd put my faith in Sasuke's stubbornness and determination any day. But there's only so long that I can listen to him groaning in pain.

When Sasuke draws up his knee, it would seem that my faith is being rewarded. His voice rings out, much stronger than before. "Get off of me!" He drives a kick into Yoroi's stomach, forcing the older ninja off of him violently enough to send him rolling across the floor.

The separation gives both of them a chance to pull themselves together, though Yoroi is the first back on his feet. "So, you've still got some strength left, huh? Impressive, for a guinea pig." His hand starts to glow with chakra once more. "Don't worry, little man. I'll make it short and sweet."

Yoroi runs towards Sasuke as our cheering corner's little Uchiha gets to his feet. And he aims a chakra powered jab straight at Sasuke's face. Sasuke is quick enough to dodge the first few, though one eventually fluffs up his hair, giving Yoroi just enough contact to swipe a little more of Sasuke's chakra. Sasuke, though, has enough presence of mind to duck under Yoroi's arm, nearly tripping as he stumbles past his dangerous opponent.

Nevertheless, Yoroi isn't impressed. "What's the matter? Is that really the best you can do?" He laughs loud enough for the whole room to hear.

I clench my fists on the railing. And next to me, Naruto looks like he's about to have an aneurysm. So I slide my hand over his and squeeze his fingers tightly. "He can do this. He'll win, no matter what."

Naruto grits his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. Then, those bright blue eyes flash open, along with his very loud mouth. "Hey, Sasuke! Come on, man, what was that!? You call yourself an Uchiha!?" I wince at the barb, but say nothing. "You're gonna let this goon walk all over you! Come on! Stop messing around and get it in gear!"

Well, my idiot best friend has certainly gotten Sasuke's attention. And for some reason, Sasuke's eyes widen, like he's suddenly come up with a plan. I have no idea what he could possibly come up with by staring in our direction, but whatever it is, I just hope it works.

Yoroi takes Sasuke's moment of distraction to ready a strike. "I'll teach you to turn your back on me!" He charges forward. "Big mistake! And your last!" He jabs at Sasuke again, striking nothing but air with each blow. While he's definitely got some power and speed, it seems like Yoroi is a one trick pony. That chakra draining ability of his seems to be the only thing that he can actually do. And any decent ninja knows that only having one trick is the fastest way to get yourself into an undesirable situation.

Then, Sasuke disappears. Well, to be fair, it only looks like he does. Anyone with fast enough eyes can track his movements, but it would seem that the ability to do that is beyond most of the spectators, because the surprise at Sasuke's sudden attack is evident. But as for me, I'm just impressed that he can move like that.

 _Has he always been that flexible?_ His flexibility is almost in the same league as mine.

Sasuke, crouching to the ground, kicks straight up, smashing his foot into Yoroi's jaw. In fact, the impact is so strong, that it sends Yoroi flying into the air. _Huh...that's a pretty good kick. But I didn't think that Sasuke knew any taijutsu that looked like that..._

Following Yoroi, Sasuke flips over and pushes himself off the ground, shadowing Yoroi as the larger man sails through the air. I glance around, and it seems that I'm not the only one surprised at this sudden display. And the one who seems most surprised is a boy who looks a little older than us, with a black bowl cut, and the bushiest eyebrows I've ever seen. His face is the picture of incredulity. _Well...if the Sharingan can copy moves, which is what makes Kakashi so famous, then did Sasuke copy that from this guy?_

When a sudden scream of pain echoes through the room, I turn my eyes back to the sky just in time to see something start spreading across Sasuke's neck. It almost looks like tattooed fire is writhing under his skin and burning its way out from the inside.

 _Sazaku! What's going on!? Do you have any idea what's wrong with Sasuke!?_ My mind is in a panic, because typically, a scream of pain of that volume is not a good thing.

However, Suzaku remains silent. From the interactions we've had, I assume that if he knew the answer to my question, he would have told me by now. His silence likely means that he has no idea what's going on, and doesn't want to panic me further by speculating.

But it seems to be a battle of wills up there, because as quickly as the marks spread over his skin, they start to recede as well. And with that small battle won, Sasuke brings his left leg around to kick Yoroi. But when blocked, he changes his center of gravity and swings a strike around to Yoroi's other side, smashing his left fist down onto Yoroi's chest.

As Yoroi sinks towards the ground, Sasuke streamlines himself somewhat. "Come back here, I'm not done yet!" Using gravity and a full spin, he swings his left leg around, driving his heel straight into his opponent's torso. I cover my ears, because I could swear that I could hear the sounds of his ribs breaking. And judging by the sight of blood spurting from Yoroi's mouth, I'm probably not too far off in that assessment.

As Yoroi is smashed against the ground, Sasuke slides across it on his back, turning right over, nearly snapping his neck in the process, and lands on his stomach. Neither of them are moving much, but at least with Sasuke, I can see him twitching a bit. _Good, at least he's conscious...I think._

The proctor glances at each of them, then approaches Yoroi. "Well, this one's had it." And no sooner do the words come out of his mouth, do the rest of us see Sasuke struggling to his feet. He looks a bit worse for wear, but nothing seems to be permanently damaged.

Though I definitely don't like the way that the Sound team's teacher is looking at him. _Ugh...aren't there laws against letting pedophiles near young people? That guy is seriously creepy._ I could swear that he's undressing Sasuke with his eyes, the way that he's looking down at him.

The proctor doesn't notice, focusing only on Sasuke and the results of the fight. "I'm declaring this match over. As the winner of this preliminary round, Sasuke Uchiha advances to the finals."

That announcement is definitely what we were waiting to hear. And Naruto decides to voice our approval the only way he knows how. "Way to go!" I'm too late to slap my hands back over my ears, so I just wince slightly at the sheer volume of his enthusiasm.

Sasuke falls onto his butt, glancing up at us with a small smirk on his face. Seeing that expression is something of a relief. It means that he's going to be just fine. That said, when it looks like he's about to face plant, Kakashi flickers onto the floor, pressing his knee to Sasuke's back and keeps him upright.

Kakashi's voice drops low, making it impossible to hear whatever he's saying to Sasuke. Naruto, on the other hand, has no problem with letting the entire room hear him. "You okay!? Hey, Sasuke! You won, but in such an uncool way, you came out looking like you're the one that got beat up!"

"Idiot! Give me a break you little..." Sasuke sighs and shake his head. "Oh well..." He does look like he's going to need to sit down after this. The match was hardly fair, since it looks like he didn't even use his Sharingan, let alone any of those fire jutsu he's got stored away for special occasions.

Although, now that I look around the room, it seems to me that over in the Sand area, Gaara is looking a little twitchy. _Panic? No...he seems too self-assured for that. Anxiety? Maybe... Or, it could be a medical condition. But I wouldn't know that for sure unless I got a close look at him. And I get the feeling that he might object to that._

A medical team comes in to take Yoroi away, and one of them approaches Sasuke. "Sasuke Uchiha, maybe you should come along to the infirmary too and let us treat your injuries."

Kakashi looks up from his book. "I think you're out of your league with this one. I'll look after him." I frown. _What does he mean by that? What exactly is wrong with Sasuke that a medic can't fix?_ Then he crouches down behind Sasuke. "Alright, up you go, you're coming with me." Then he whispers something else in Sasuke's ear that I don't manage to catch.

There's something going on here, and I don't like it.

Thankfully, Sasuke's voice get just loud enough for me to make out. "Before the preliminaries are over!?" Whatever it is, Sasuke doesn't like it. "I want to see who gets to go on to the finals!"

"Forget it."

"But-"

"And don't even think of arguing." Kakashi stands up. "If we leave it any longer, who knows...it may be too late. I've already cut you enough slack as it is. Come on, let's go."

I grit my teeth and my fingers clench uncomfortably. _What the hell is going on here!? What does Kakashi know, and what is it doing to Sasuke?_ Then, I remember those flame-like markings on his skin. _Is that it? Is whatever he's talking about what caused those marks earlier?_ All I can do is guess, because even though Suzaku said that it holds a malevolent power, he didn't tell me anything else. What I do know, is that whatever it is...it's causing him pain. But that tells me nothing about what Kakashi plans to do with it.

 _Just...please don't let it hurt him anymore..._


	30. Blood, Bugs, and Homicidal Puppets

**It's official, I love this semester. All of my teachers are awesome, and I'm going to have even more free time than I thought (that doesn't mean that I can slack on homework, though).**

 **Okay, so there's going to be a lot more talking on the sidelines, and a lot less focusing on the fighting this chapter. Also, as something of a form of therapy, I'll be diving into describing one of my own phobias (which, frankly, should be a phobia that everyone's got), because nothing makes a character seem more real than having something silly or freaking scary that they're afraid of.**

 **For me, said phobia comes about as a result of a nightmare back when I was a kid. I saw an earwig for the first time, and that same night, I had a dream that my pillows and blankets all turned to earwigs, then they started crawling into my ears, my nose, my mouth, my eyes, and other...even less desirable places. And to an eight year old, that's scary stuff. Hence, my phobia of all things creepy and crawly.**

 **Oh, and keep in mind that I'm not ten years old, so if I don't wanna censor the blood, I'm not gonna censor the blood (doesn't mean I'll go crazy with is, but I'll keep it there when it's appropriate).**

 **Also, I'm glad that someone liked the little bit of affection that I slipped into the last chapter. Though...I wonder if anyone has figured out the symbolic significance of it...**

* * *

After watching Kakashi escort Sasuke out of the room, Naruto turns to us. "Hey, Sakura, maybe I'm just crazy, but did you see any weird marks on Sasuke's neck during the fight?"

Judging by the alarm that shows on her face, the answer to that question is most definitely a yes. And at least that means that I'm not crazy for having seen whatever that was. But instead of admitting it, she plays dumb. "What mark? I didn't see it."

Naruto blinks bemusedly. "Oh, okay." His voice lowers a bit. "Did you see anything?"

I have two options here. I could lie to Naruto and tell him that I saw nothing, then confront either Sakura or Sasuke about it later. Or, I can tell Naruto that I'm not entirely sure what I saw, which is the truth. _Maybe...I should be careful about this..._ "I'm not sure. There was a lot going on during that match, so I can't really be sure of anything. But..." It's probably best to distract him. "The technique that was used on Sasuke seemed pretty dangerous. He's probably out of chakra now." That is certainly the truth. "I hope that whatever is wrong with Sasuke, that Kakashi can take care of it."

"Right..." Naruto looks down at my hand, which is still firmly clasped over his. "Are you okay? You seem sad..." Sometimes, he's way too smart for his own good. No matter how stupid people seem to think he is, his intuition is frighteningly accurate sometimes.

I swallow carefully, then lower my head. "I'll be fine. I don't want to talk about it here." I know that he won't drop it, but I can at least avoid talking about it in front of people who don't matter.

"Uh...Okay then." The proctor's droning voice calls us back to attention. "Let's move on to the third match." Behind him, the electronic board starts to spin again, and every competitor waits patiently as the names zoom by. Although, there are now four less names to choose from.

Hence, the machine spits out one name I know well, and another that I do not. Shino Aburame, and someone called Zaku Abumi. But when a laugh comes from the Sound team, I can quickly put a name to a face. _Well, Akito and Hiro aren't going to be pleased that they won't have the chance to bash this guy's face in._

On the other hand, I don't envy the guy. Going up against Shino would prove to be a rather unpleasant experience. According to my memories, the Aburame Clan specializes in bugs. Lots of them. And while that wouldn't be too much of a problem for me, seeing as I could just burn them or blow them away, I still don't like the idea of bugs crawling their way into who knows where.

And as a medic, I know plenty of places that I wouldn't want them crawling into.

The proctor remains unfazed as he gesture to the competitors. "Step forward please." And at his command, Zaku and Shino, who have already begun moving, make their way down the stairs and out towards the middle of the floor, which still bears scorch marks from my rather overenthusiastic display earlier.

But as my eyes flick over Zaku, I notice one thing that could be something of a complication. Both of his arms are bandaged up and hanging in slings. _What the hell happened to him in the forest? Those are some serious looking injuries._

Beside me, Sakura is shaking a little, so I lean away from Naruto and whisper in Sakura's ear. "Do you know what happened to that Sound guy in the forest?"

The jolt that goes through her body is more than enough to tell me that she does. "N-no, of course I don't."

Her eyes flick to Naruto, and I take the hint. Whatever she knows, she doesn't want to say it in front of Naruto. I can rectify that easily. I turn to Naruto and squeeze his hand. "Hey, you wanna talk with me and Sakura about make-up and shoes? I'm sure that we could use your opinion on summer clothes."

Predictably, Naruto scrunches up his nose. "No way! Girls are way too weird about their clothes! Count me out!"

"Oh well." I shrug lightly and remove my hand from his. "Suit yourself." That should keep him out of our hair just long enough for me to get an answer out of Sakura. I sidle over to her, keeping my voice low. "Alright, now why don't you tell me who damaged that guy's arms." She swallows nervously, and the truth seems to click in her head. She knows that she's been caught. So, I give her another nudge. "If you don't want Naruto to know, that's fine. But I really don't like being kept out of the loop. I already know that there's something seriously wrong with Sasuke, and I will find out, then find a way to help. But for now, let's start with what happened to that Sound guy."

Sakura's eyes widen, then she turns her head away and stares down at Shino and Zaku. "It...was Sasuke, he's the one who broke them." Her voice is nearly inaudible, but her words are clear. "He did it to protect me."

"To protect you, huh?" After what happened in the Land of Waves, I can see how Sasuke would do something like that for one of his teammates. If he's willing to put his life on the line for them, then he could certainly hurt someone in order to protect them. "Alright, I can buy that." My eyes flick to the pink locks that trail down towards her shoulders. "Does it have anything to do with your change in hairstyle.

She nods slightly. "I'll tell you later."

"I can live with that." I turn my eyes away from her and down to the floor. "Looks like the next match is about to start." This ought to be interesting. I haven't seen Shino actually fight before, so watching this should be a good chance for collecting information. "I'll see you later, Sakura." I glance back at Naruto. "Alright, I'm heading back to my team now. I'll cheer you both on later, okay?"

Naruto pouts a little. "Okay." I know that he likes it when I'm close to him, but he's really got to get it into his head that I should really be hanging out with my teammates right now.

I move over towards Akito and Hiro, both of whom have remained silent this whole time. I guess that means that they knew my expression well enough not to get involved. I've cooled down now, so they should be safe enough from my wayward emotions.

Though as I approach them and lean on the railing between my teammates, rather than asking me about what happened, Akito just pats me on the head and ruffles my hair. "Nice match there. I think you surprised a lot of people. But..." He leans down close to my ear. "Please try not to roast us all next time."

I flush furiously. "I didn't mean to! I just...wanted to win." Though I suppose that bathing the whole room in flames does count as overkill.

Yuki-Sensei chuckles softly. "Well, you certainly won't be underestimated again. Not unless one of your future opponents wants to go down in a blaze of glory." _Great...now she's making bad jokes. She almost reminds me of Kakashi._

"By the way..." Akito stays close to my ear. "I saw what you did to the Uchiha."

I freeze, the heat refusing to leave my cheeks. I thought that no one would see that. But if anyone did, then of course they would go and take it the wrong way. "I was just healing his eyes. They looked swollen, and I didn't think that it was a good idea to let him go into a fight like that."

"Right..." Akito backs away, sounding rather amused. "Anyway, looks like the third match is finally about to get interesting." He points down to the floor, where Shino and Zaku seem to just be staring at each other. The proctor has moved out of the way already, so it looks like we're just waiting for one of them to make the first move.

My eyes trail across the room, and I notice that the Sound team's teacher has disappeared. _Leaving right before one of your students' matches? Is that normal? I mean...at least Kakashi waited until after Sasuke's match before dragging him off to who knows where._ Whatever is going on here, it's making me very suspicious.

Shino, the ever mysterious old classmate of ours, finally makes some noise. "If you fight me, you won't be able to recover. Forfeit...and withdraw."

But from what I've seen so far from those Sound ninja, I doubt that this guy is just going to back down quietly. And from the looks of it, he's trying to force his injured arms to move. starting with the left one. "Well, what do you know, I've got a little movement in one of em." He crouches to the ground, pulling his left arm from its sling. "One good arm's more than enough to beat you!" He charges, which I honestly think is a rather foolish move. He's clearly in no real shape to fight. And Shino's no idiot. I can already see how this match is going to end.

Badly.

Zaku tries to punch Shino, but the strike is blocked easily, and Shino doesn't move anything apart from his right arm. "You couldn't beat me using both your arms." His voice is fairly quiet, but there's no hint of a tremor there. He's confident, and that's good. It also means that I'll probably get to see something interesting.

"Yeah!? Well I've got news for ya!" Zaku pulls back a little, then chakra builds up around his hand. Whatever he's doing, it's not good. And a sharp ringing sound hits my ears, blocking out all other sound as I wince. Fortunately, I can still see that whatever he's done has kicked up a cloud of dust, and Shino goes rolling across the floor.

Before I can get to the bottom of what just happened, Suzaku's voice rings painfully in my head. _Those were supersonic waves. Normally, humans cannot hear them. However..._

His tone lets me fill in the blanks. _Because you're inside me, I picked up the frequency?_

 _Yes._ It might have been nice to know something like this sooner, but considering how much I've learned about him in just the past couple of months, I can hardly blame him for going slowly. Sometimes, it's just better to learn through experience. Learning theory is one thing, but learning through application is just so much more effective and practical. I'm sure that Naruto knows that really well.

While the incessant ringing begins to die down, my eyes find Shino. But I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Apart from the fact that he's standing up, when most logic dictates that he shouldn't be able to. He took that attack point blank.

Then, I shiver and lean away from the railing. Because there are tiny little bugs coming out of holes on Shino's face. _Oh...no...that's just gross._ My nightmare of bugs crawling into every orifice has come to life. But instead of them crawling in, they're crawling out. And it seems like there's no end to them.

"Great, now that you've creeped us all out, what happens next?" Zaku's taunt seems a little halfhearted. Then again, that might just be me hearing the inflections wrong. I have no clue what that supersonic blast did to my inner ear, but I can feel the bones grating a little as they realign themselves.

That, however, does not prevent me from noticing the bug army that's crawling up behind Zaku. It's the second part of my nightmare come to life. My fingers twitch, ready to set fire to everything around me, in the impossible scenario that Shino would decide to sick his bugs on the rest of us. Though even if my brain tells me that it's not going to happen, that doesn't stop my instincts from jumping at every opportunity.

Zaku finally turns around and notices the bugs coming up behind him, but he can't afford to take his eyes off of Shino for long. And our little bug master down there holds up a bug on his finger. "They're a rare species of parasitic beetle that attack their prey in a swarm., eating its chakra. An army this size will suck you dry in less than a minute. Your only intelligent option is to forfeit the match. You can't fight two opponents at once. If you use your good arm against me, my friends will swarm you from behind. Conversely, if you use your good arm to keep them at bay, then you'll have me on your blind side. Either way, your defeat will be certain, and unpleasant. It's why it's wise to always have an ace in the hole." It figures that Shino would rather use a scare tactic than go straight for the kill. He never did seem like a violent one back at the academy. He's fighting smart. On the other hand, it's clear that this is far from an empty threat.

Zaku freezes for a moment, his eyes unfocused. It makes me wonder what he's thinking about. But then, the moment is over, and he raises his hand towards Shino, making his choice. "Now you've done it!" His other arm moves, and he swings it to the other side. "Now you've made me mad!"

Suspiciously, as Zaku opens his other hand towards the bugs, Shino lowers his own hands. _What's he up to...? I can't believe that Shino would be letting down his guard so easily..._ There has to be something more here, I just can't figure out what.

Zaku smirks darkly. "Like you said yourself, always have an ace in the hole! Right!?" Obviously, his arm is not nearly as damaged as he led us all to believe. That, or maybe he just recovers quickly. And, of course, there's always the possibility that he's just doing this on sheer willpower alone. I've seen Naruto do some crazy things that way, so it's not impossible. And judging by the roar that escapes his throat, that last option might just be the right one. "I'll blow you away!"

But, instead of making good on that threat and blowing both Shino and his bug army away, Zaku's arms begin to tremble, and chakra starts seeping out of them at the elbows. I can see the building pressure...and it's inside of his arms. _What the hell is going on!?_

Zaku's arms drop as he screams in pain. "My arms! What's wrong with them!?" And I look down to see the holes that have made their home around his elbow joints. There's blood pouring out of those holes, and it looks painful. Until he turns his palms up to reveal the bugs coming out of the wind holes in his arms.

Blood, guts, gore, those things I can handle. But this...this is a step too far. I cover my ears and turn around, crouching to the ground and away from the sight and sound of what Shino's done to Zaku. I have no pity for the Sound ninja, none at all. But regardless of who it's being done to, a sight like that is just a little too much for me to stomach. And speaking of my stomach, it's all I can do to stop it from twisting itself into knots right now. My pride is the only thing keeping me from retching my guts out.

Besides, I don't need to see the end of this fight, I already know that Zaku has lost.

I'm not sure how much later it is, but Hiro's hand finds my shoulder, and he rubs it gently, while his other hand pries my left hand from my ear. "Come on, the match is over. The bugs are gone."

I relax my hands and look up at him over my shoulder. "Okay..." I wasn't really planning on revealing this fear to anyone, let alone my competition, but I suppose that it can't be helped. What's done is done, and there's nothing that I can do about it.

I just hope that I don't have to see that many bugs again any time soon. Shino is literally my living, breathing, and worst of all, walking nightmare. _Ugh...I'm so going to have nightmares about this for the next month..._

But as I let Hiro pull me to my feet, I look over the railing to see two new competitors on the floor. And then, my eyes find the screen. _Kankuro and Misumi, huh? Misumi...that's one of Kabuto's teammates. Their other teammate, Yoroi...he was the one who fought Sasuke._ I look down to the two ninja on the ground. _So, I'll finally get to see one of the Sand ninja fight. This should be interesting._

Kankuro slips a big...bandaged thing off his back, plopping it down on the floor. "Let me do you a favor and end this battle quickly."

Misumi twitches. "You can't end it if I end it first." His twitch turns into a charge, and he strikes at Kankuro, only for the punch to be stopped cold. In fact, Kankuro almost made it look easy.

That is, until Misumi's body decides to defy all the laws of biology and physics, turning his arm almost into a snake as it curls around Kankuro's arm. And unlike Shino's bugs, I find this ability to be rather fascinating. _So...it seems like both of Kabuto's teammates spacialize in jutsu derived from medical ninjutsu. Interesting..._ Although that does end up begging a question. _If his teammates can use medical ninjutsu...then does that mean Kabuto can as well?_

If that's true, then it would explain why he looked distinctly uninjured right before he left. Despite his claims, he certainly didn't look like someone who had just had their inner ear screwed up. So unless he got someone to take a look at it for him, which isn't a stretch, since we have a pretty good hospital here, then it would mean that he's hiding a few talents of his own. To be on the safe side, I should probably assume the later.

Meanwhile, Misumi's limbs continue to wrap around Kankuro, arms and legs alike. He's like a pretzel combined with a noodle. And for Kankuro, that's a very bad thing, seeing as Misumi has him in the kind of lock that would make it very easy to snap a bone, or ten. Most alarmingly, is Misumi's current ability to snap Kankuro's neck if he so chooses.

Kankuro groans as Misumi's limbs tighten, and that bandaged...thing falls to the floor. I don't know what it is, but unless Kankuro wants to die, he'd better think of something quickly. Though, no matter what happens next, I'll learn something to use in the next round.

About ten feet over next to a newly returned Kakashi, Naruto is looking down in awe. "Whoa! What's up with that guy's body!? That's freaky! I wish I could do that!" However, imagining Naruto pulling off something like this is more than a little disturbing.

I look back down to Misumi, who squeezes Kankuro a little tighter. "I dislocate every one of my joints, softening my body. then, with my chakra, I can control it perfectly."

My hands clench once more on the railing. _He relaxes his body and doslocates his joints...leaving his body malleable enough to twist and mold with impunity... It's a great idea in theory...but how does he put all of his joints back in place? It's one thing to dislocate a joint, but it's not nearly as easy to put it back. And it's certainly not painless._

Misumi's smirk seems visible, even through his mask. "The more you struggle, the tighter I'll squeeze." His eyes drift down to the bandaged package. "I don't know what you're carrying in there, but as long as I have a hold of you, it makes no difference. I could break your neck right now, if I wanted to. And I will, unless you give up." And with that position, it's no idle threat.

Kankuro just grins. "You wanna bet?"

Misumi takes that as a challenge. "You wanna die?"

"You fool." Kankuro smiles, rather unfazed by the current threat to his life. "You're the one who's gonna die here."

Instead of rising to the bait, there's a loud snap, and Kankuro goes limp in Misumi's arms. It would seem to all of the onlookers that the Sand ninja has just had his neck snapped. And as I look up at Gaara, the Sand team's red-head, either something is very, very off, or he's a psychopath who doesn't care that his teammate is dead. Because he certainly doesn't look very bothered by any of this.

And I think it's a toss up.

Then, an audible cracking sound emanates from Kankuro, and something falls to the floor. It looks almost like plaster or something.

 _The Sand ninja lives._

My eyes widen, and I stare down at Kankuro, wondering if maybe Suzaku is on to something. then, he moves, though not like any human I've ever seen. His head spins a full hundred and eighty degrees, the "skin" peeling off to reveal darkened wood underneath.

 _What the hell is that!?_ I've never seen anything like it before. But whatever it is, it means that this match isn't quite as over as we all thought it was. My hands relax on the railing, and my mid whirs in interest as the fake Kankuro opens its mouth. "Now, it's my turn, so say goodbye!"

The rest of the outer layer falls off as a large wooden...puppet is revealed. Really, it looks like a marionette. Not only that, but it's got four arms, a head of wild hair, and looks far too big to have been squished into a form the size of Kankuro. As Misumi is wrapped up helplessly in the puppet's hold, the package begins to move, and everything clicks neatly into place.

 _Of course...that's why he wasn't afraid..._

From the bandaged package, Kankuro emerges, completely unharmed. Chakra threads connect his puppet to his fingers. That means that he's at a perfectly safe distance, while his opponent is completely tied up. He's a puppet-master, and he's played the field perfectly to his advantage. _He's a smart one..._

Kankuro clenches his fist, and judging by the strangled sounds coming from Misumi, it's safe to say that the puppet is squeezing him in response to its master's commands. The grip is so tight, that I can hear the bones cracking.

"E-enough! I-I give-" Misumi barely manages to choke out a few words while being held in the puppet's death grip.

Kankuro smirks. "But if your bones are all crushed, just think how much more flexible you'll be."

Moments later, Misumi stops struggling, and the puppet loosens its grip as the two fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.

The proctor holds up his hand. "Because his opponent is unable to continue, the winner is Kankuro."

As the medics answer the summons, a few people leave the viewing area to go to the bathroom. That includes Sakura and Ino. I watch quietly as the medics do their job and load a bloodied Misumi into a stretcher, leaving behind red stains on the floor. But, now that I think about it, there's something about him and his teammate Yoroi that seems really off to me. Apart from their apparent sadism, of course. I just wish that I knew what their deal was. I hate being in the dark.

But, there's nothing I can do right now to investigate the matter. So I settle for approaching Kakashi instead. He raises an eyebrow as I close the distance between us. "Hello, Ciara. You had a good match earlier. Sorry I didn't congratulate you. I was...a little preoccupied."

"So I saw." I glare at him slightly, before moving in close. "Is Sasuke alright?"

"Yes, he's sleeping." Kakashi says it so lightly, that I know he's bullshitting me about something.

"And what about that malevolent energy coming off him? Has it been dealt with?" I'd rather not dance around a lot. I just want to make sure that he's not going to end up dead, or worse.

Kakashi stiffens slightly. "So you sensed it..." He sounds half resigned, half curious. He probably wants to know how exactly I came to know about it, especially since my team was one of the first to make it to the tower, and therefore, I wasn't around Naruto's team for the past few days. And I'm pretty damn sure that whatever that power was, he didn't have it before we went into the second exam.

"Yes." Its probably better that he doesn't know who really sensed it. "Either way, I just want to know that whatever it is, it's being taken care of." I like to think that I've got my priorities straight. I'm also hoping to prove that right now.

He nods almost imperceptibly. "It's taken care of."

"Good." A knot in my stomach that I wasn't even aware of, loosens considerably. Though it doesn't loosen completely, and I think I know why.

My eyes flick to Naruto, who is staring at the board. His name still hasn't been called, and there are still a lot of dangerous opponents out there. The knot that remains isn't for an injured ally.

It's for the one close to me who hasn't fought yet.

But it doesn't matter. Or it won't, soon enough. Because I believe in him.


	31. Kunoichi Rumble

**Okay, so this chapter is going to seem really sidelined for the most part, but there are some details that I'm going to throw in there that I'll be coming back to later. Every single one of these battle chapters is going to have some significance, whether you know it or not (and like prophecies, you're probably not going to realize it until it's thrown right in your face). But considering how long this story is going to end up being, it's probably going to be another twenty or thirty chapters before the details I put here become visibly relevant. And one detail in particular is going to be very important. I wonder if anyone can point it out.**

 **And it looks as though the shipping camps have begun. Good. Now, let's see if I can get a few more of them going so that I can watch the chaos. It makes me glad that my reviewers are so nice. I've seen a few anonymous reviews on other writers' stories that honestly make me feel like maybe a real life Dark Brotherhood wouldn't be a bad idea.**

* * *

Sakura returns from her trip to the bathroom, the electronic board already spinning to pick out the next two competitors. But I can't help being worried about her. She's definitely not a combat oriented ninja, and that could put her at a serious disadvantage against most of the other ninja here Admittedly, I'm not the greatest at hand to hand combat, myself, but my ninjutsu skills more than make up for that in a fight. Sadly, Sakura cannot claim the same. So I really hope that nothing bad happens to her. And I certainly hope that she doesn't get matched up against either of the two remaining genin from the Sand. Book smarts won't get her out of a fight like that in one piece.

Naruto huffs impatiently. "Well, no matter who's picked, it'll be two weirdoes. This contest is chock full of them." _He's definitely not wrong there..._

"Well, you're one to talk." Kakashi glances down at Naruto, but his tone is so light with the jibe that it's obvious to see that he's just teasing.

Sakura catches on quick and smile. "Yeah, good point."

"Hey! Gimme a break!" Naruto pouts, little pink lips set into a stubborn frown. _He can be so childish sometimes..._ Sakura must agree with me, because she's giggling a lot more than usual. Well, considering that Naruto is the reason for it. _Maybe this means that she's finally warming up to him. I wonder what happened while they were in the forest..._

My eyes widen at the selected participants. _Oh...boy...this could get ugly._ I glance at Sakura, who is still giggling, and obviously hasn't taken a look at the screen yet. _I hope that she doesn't get herself hurt._

Kakashi taps on his student's shoulder, clearing his throat. "This isn't a time for laughter."

Sakura turns her head towards the board, and as Ino approaches, both of them stare wide-eyed at it. Then, they turn towards each other, looking distinctly uncomfortable, before locking their gazes in an intense stare-down. There's enough tension between the two to use as a trampoline.

Silently, the two of them head for the stairs, not saying a word to each other until they make it down to the middle of the floor. Ino breaks the silence. "I never though I'd fight you. Or at least...I didn't think it would happen this soon." Her nose crinkles as she frowns. "Don't expect me to go easy on you."

In our corner, Naruto can't keep his mouth shut. "Go Sakura! you can do it! Don't lose!" _Well, I guess that I might as well pick a side to cheer for._ The last couple of fights, I haven't had a vested interest in seeing one competitor come out on top of the other. Now, however, I'd rather see Sakura win than Ino. After all, Ino was way more annoying at the academy than Sakura was, if only because she was louder and more full of herself.

I seriously don't envy Sasuke for having had their attention. I actually feel sorry for him now, in retrospect. At the time, though, I kinda tended to take Naruto's side in everything, so Mr. Popular and I were somewhat at odds for a few years. Really, taking Naruto's side put me even more at odds with everyone else. Thankfully, that seems to have died down, now that we're all genin, and the others have matured somewhat.

The proctor raises his hand and steps back to give the two of them enough room. "Begin."

The two girls rush towards each other, and the first strike is a kick coming from Sakura. Ino ducks under it, before the two of them turn what's supposed to be a battle to submission into a rather feminine version of a fist fight. It's hard to believe that either of them are actually trying to knock their opponent out.

I shake my head and sigh. "What do those two think they're doing...?"

Naruto laughs eagerly. "I knew it! Sakur's totally blowing Ino out of the water in this battle!"

Nearby, Shikamaru sighs and shakes his head. "What a fool."

"What did you say to me!?" Naruto takes the bait in an instant. He's really got to stop doing that.

"You wanna make something of it?" Shikamaru glares at him. "Go ahead. Cause you'll lose."

Naruto's hair stands on end. "Who do you think you are!?"

"That's it? That's as good as kunoichi can get at hand to hand combat?" That jab comes from the Hyuuga, and it sets Naruto off just as much.

Thankfully, his teammate sets him straight. "It's not because they're girls, you know, Neji." She looks back down at the two girls. "It's just that those two are using kick gloves. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman in battle."

"Uh..." Naruto looks down for a moment, completely confused. "Using kick gloves?"

I sigh pointedly. "They're pulling their punches." My eyes follow their every move. "I don't know what kind of relationship they had before I ended up at the academy, but whatever it was...it's making them go easy on each other. This isn't the battle to the knock out that it's supposed to be."

And Ino proves it, herself. She has the perfect chance to give Sakura a strong punch to the jaw, but instead of hitting her with a right hook, she slaps her across the face instead. Light jade and aqua eyes meet, and the two of them seem more shocked than anything else. Then, they just stand there, frozen and dazed.

I lean over towards Hiro. "Do you know what's going on with those two?"

He frowns, then shrugs. "Dunno. Akito and I got held back in our last year, so until this past year with all of you, we didn't really see the two of them that much."

Reminding me of the fact that they got held back for me makes me feel a little guilty. "Sorry...you two were held back for my sake. If it weren't for me, you two could probably be chunin already."

Hiro laughs. "Yeah, probably."

"Hiro!" Akito grimaces. "Don't say that. It's not her fault, so don't say it in a way that'll give her the wrong idea!" He bumps into my shoulder, his grimace becoming a smile. "Besides, I doubt that there was anyone interesting enough in our own year to be the third member of our team. Waiting a year for you was definitely worth it."

I fight down the urge to blush, because if I didn't know better, I'd say that he was flirting with me. Thankfully, I do know better, because it wouldn't be the first time that these two have gone about teasing me. Plus, they throw each other some very odd looks that I do my best to ignore.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a slight moving of Sakura's hand. _So, are they done with whatever is keeping them from fighting?_ They had best be done with it, otherwise this is going to take all day.

Sakura glares at her rival. "Alright, listen up, Ino. I'm not going to fight with you over Sasuke." I nearly choke. _Wait a minute, THAT'S what this is about!?_ The sheer stupidity of it makes me want to bang my head against the railing. _Ugh, maybe I would be able to understand it if Sasuke ever actually showed an interest in girls. Besides, he's probably still at the point where he thinks that they're weird, gross, and a waste of time. And really, if that's true, then I certainly can't blame him._

"What did you say!?" Ino's shrill voice rings across the room. _Exactly how long have these two been fighting over him?_

Sakura holds her ground. "I'm not the weak, needy girl I used to be. You're not even on my radar. And you're not Sasuke's type, Ino Pig!"

I sigh, my interest in the two quickly fading. _And just how would you know what Sasuke's type is? It's not like he's ever shown any particular interest in you._ Then again, I could be wrong. Though I doubt it, since Sasuke seems like the kind of person who would pay a lot more attention to someone if he had an interest in them.

After all, I'm the one who had to go through an inquisition when he found out that I hid my talents while we were at the academy. And it's definitely not something I want to go through again. If he wants to sate his curiosity in the future, he should really curb that judgmental attitude of his. _And Sasuke calls girls annoying..._

Ino's gaze hardens. "Sakura, you'd better watch your step! Do you have any idea who you're mouthing off to!?" I'd say that she does, considering who she's fighting. "Don't press your luck with me, little Billboard Brow!" Another thing I'll never understand about these two is their nicknames for each other. I mean, at least Naruto and Sasuke's weird relationship makes sense. They pick on each other, challenge each other, and ultimately push themselves harder. But with these two girls, it only seems to serve as a way to rile each other up and reduce their potential.

Naruto stares down at the two of them, wide-eyed. "Did you hear that stuff? Sakura was so mean. That's out of line, isn't it?" He looks up at Kakashi, before he turns back to the two girls. "She sure made Ino mad, I've never seen her look so scary." And he would know, considering that he used to pick fights with Sasuke all of the time at the academy, and Ino got on his case pretty often for it.

Kakashi looks a little bored. "Hm...yes, but there's more to it than that. Sakura isn't the kind of person to do things like needlessly flaunt her own power, callously hurt people. But, she also doesn't like having Ino take pity on her and pull her punches." He glances at me. "I believe you said earlier that the two of them were pulling their punches..."

I nod. "That, or they're even less combat oriented than I thought. I decided to go with the former."

"Yes..." Kakashi turns back to watch the fight.

"So, I'm a bud that hasn't flowered, huh?" I narrow my eyes at Sakura's remark. _Just what does she mean by that...?_ I turn my eyes to Ino. _Did she say something to Sakura that compared her to a flower? Well...I guess it makes sense, since Ino's family owns a flower shop. If anyone is going to use flower metaphors, it's going to be her._

A strange expression, similar to determination, crosses Sakura's face. Then, she reaches up into her hair and pulls her headband from it. Ino's eyes widen, and she pulls her own headband from its place around her hips. I'm not sure what it is, but as they tie their headbands into place, it seems to be something of significant symbolic importance to the two of them.

 _Does this mean that they're finally getting serious?_

Naruto looks so confused. "What in the world is going on?"

"What do you mean?" I swear that Kakashi is getting some kind of amusement out of all of Naruto's questions.

"Why are those two getting so worked up just looking at each other?" As soon as the words come out of Naruto's mouth, I clutch at my stomach as laughter rips itself from deep inside me. _Oh man, I can't believe that Naruto of all people just asked that question._ He glares half-heartedly at me. "Hey! What's so funny!?"

Kakashi seems to hold back his own chuckles pretty well. "Well, Naruto, rivalry is a tricky business. Not that I would know." Kakashi's eyes find those of the older bowl-cut sensei's, and he waves. "Oh, hi there." The bowl-cut sensei's eyes narrow a little, and I could swear that I can see steam coming from his head. _Not that you would know, huh? Seems to me like there's someone over there who feels somewhat differently about that. He's got the same expression that Naruto has whenever Sasuke verbally prods him._

The two of them take off towards each other, and it looks like this battle is about to get started for real. Sakura's hands fly as she weaves the signs for a basic clone jutsu. And whatever she's doing, I hope that she's got a plan. Ino remains fairly unfazed, stopping in her tracks as she assumes a defensive stance. It seems to me like she's going to try to pick out the real one and make for a quick counter-strike.

Luckily, it seems that Sakura does have a plan, and she speeds up at the last second, taking Ino by surprise and landing a solid strike that sends the blond flying backwards. Sakura stops there and glares at Ino. "I'm not some crybaby anymore. You play with fire and you're gonna get burned! Let's see your best, Ino!"

Ino picks herself up, wiping the dirt and ash from her face. "It's not like I needed your invitation, ya know." She stands up with a slightly unsteady gait. "I'll give you my best, but you're not gonna like it!"

Naruto grins down at the proceedings. "You're doing awesome, Sakura! Awesome! Believe it!"

I glance at my best friend, then smirk gently. _Guess I might as well..._ I raise my voice as I look down at Sakura. "Keep your head cool! If you get too worked up, you'll lose focus!"

"Wise words..." Kakashi stares down at his student. "Powerful strikes using chakra... Top notch, considering she's a rookie." He nods approvingly. "I've never seen Sakura this good."

"Huh?" Naruto scrunches up his nose slightly. "Hold on, you not saying she's better than me..." He leaves the question hanging, as though daring Kakashi to say yes.

"No...you're the greatest." And despite the answer, I can tell that there's a little sarcasm laced in Kakashi's voice. But also...something that's not sarcasm. But I'll have to figure out what that is later. I don't think that the preliminary rounds are a good time for me to subject Naruto's teacher to an inquisition of my own.

But down on the floor, it's becoming a full on taijutsu fight, weapons included. Those girls are just hammering away at each other. And it's just reminding me that elemental jutsu aren't as common among our age group as they might seem. Sure, my whole team can pull them off, and Akito and I have more than one element at our disposal. But through the rest of our year, elements are rare. Sasuke is a special exception, probably due to his training when he was young.

If these two want to survive on the harder missions, they're going to have to get something with more attacking power than this. Unless they want to go on highly specialized missions, where their teammates will cover all the bases while they pull off infiltration. But in the end, a lack in attacking power is an easy way to get yourself killed. Our run-in with Zabuza proved that much.

It's been nearly ten minutes, and while the both of them are covered in bruises, along with a few scratches, neither of them has gone down for the count yet. Either they're both gifted with amazing endurance, or they're just not hitting hard enough to make a decisive strike.

Finally, Ino snaps. "This isn't how this was supposed to go! How can you be evenly matched with me!?"

Sakura smirks. "I guess you're right, Ino. Your obsession with your looks and your hair can't be surpassed. I've been training too hard to worry about that stuff."

Ino growls, drawing a kunai from her holster. "You're going to pay for that! I've had enough of you making fun of me!"

I'm not entirely sure what she plans to do with that kunai, seeing as she and Sakura have matched each other step for step so far. If she wants to fight blade on blade, they'll probably just end up in a stalemate again. Then, her hands move up towards her hair.

I raise an eyebrow. _She's not actually going to..._

The kunai slices through her hair, shearing off nearly her entire ponytail.

 _Well... I guess I saw that coming... I didn't think she'd actually do it, though._

Surprised, Sakura smirks. "You think that'll help?"

"That's it!" Ino's shrill voice makes me want to clamp my hands over my ears again. She screeches and throws the blond hair all over the floor. "See! I don't need this!" _Is she trying to prove that she's not vain or something...? Because I hate to break it to her, but this doesn't really prove much._

Naruto cringes. "And I thought she looked scary before."

"Alright, I'll put an end to this right now!" Ino clasps her hands together, and she's either stupid, or she's come up with some kind of plan, because attacking right now, while she's wired, is probably not the best plan. "Get ready to tell everyone that you lost to me, Billboard Brow!"

Ino thrusts her hands out in front of her, making a signs that Sakura clearly recognizes. "Look, I know you're frustrated...but that's pointless."

"Oh yeah?" Ino takes that as a challenge. "We'll just see about that."

"Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu." Sakura smiles slightly. "It's a jutsu that allows the user to take over their opponent's spirit, and wrest control of their body away from them for a few minutes by discharging all of their own spiritual energy and striking their enemy with it." It does sound rather formidable. "But despite its power, there are major flaws to this formidable jutsu, that makes it extremely dangerous. First, the user's discharged spiritual energy can only fly straight, and it moves at a very slow speed. Second, even if the spiritual energy misses the enemy, it can't return to the user's own body for several minutes, and this, in battles that are most often measured in seconds. I should add that while the spiritual energy is gone, the user's body, your body, Ino, can't move at all. It'll be little more than a doll."

The explanation leaves me with chills running through my body. _The expelling of spiritual energy, of one's own chakra...leaving the body vulnerable in a battle._ It's an explanation that hits a little too close to home. _Is that...how they got Dad?_ My blood turns to ice in my veins, and I start to shiver as memories of blood and bodies assault me. I'd thought that I had locked those memories away, but it would seem that the lock is faulty. My stomach starts twisting itself into knots, ten times worse than when Shino had his bugs out.

"So what!?" This time, I'm thankful for Ino's shrill voice, because it rips me out of my own thoughts. "I don't care! I won't know unless I try!"

Sakura crouches, ready to dodge. "If you miss, it's all over. You do know that, right?" Then, Sakura takes off running, circling Ino.

Instead of backing down, Ino stubbornly stays her path. "Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!" She shoots it straight out in front of her just as Sakura stars coming back into her crosshairs.

Now, I have to say that neither of them thought this out very well. To be sure that she dodged it, Sakura should have run around behind Ino, then jumped over her head, taking evasive maneuvers, instead of running straight back into the line of fire. So unless this is her pride getting the better of her, then I have to wonder how she got such good grades while we were at the academy.

Both of them freeze, and it makes me want to groan. But until Ino drops, and Sakura forfeits, we'll have no proof that the jutsu worked at all. Seconds later, Ino drops to her knees, rather smoothly, in fact, suspiciously, so.

Sakura laughs, raising her head. "What an unfortunate choice, Ino." With a smile on her face, Sakura moves to step forward. "You're done, Ino." But instead of stepping towards the blond on the floor, Sakura's feet stick to the floor. There's chakra holding her in place. "No way!"

"You fell for it, Sakura." Ino raises her head, obviously not as unconscious as many believed. "Ha, I finally caught you."

Sakura continues to struggle. "It can't be!"

"I'm afraid it can." Ino laughs. "All those hand signs earlier were just an act, to fool you, to trick you into running into the trap I'd laid for you. And it worked. Now, you can't mve at all, can you? You're being held by a special rope that's made from my hair, with my chakra poured into it.

My eyes widen at Ino's explanation. _She's running chakra through her hair?_ Now that's something that I've never seen done before, though it brings up some interesting possibilities. I hum slightly and run my fingers through my hair, curling the strands around them. _I think I can work with that..._

Ino puts her foot down on the strands, keeping her connection to the chakra ropes. "Now that you're trapped, I can take over your body and make you say that you're giving up on this match." She holds her hands up once again. "There's no way I'll miss with this jutsu now!"

Naruto's hands clench tightly onto the railing. "You've gotta get our of there, quick!" But his words are for nothing, because Sakura is obviously stuck fast, Ino's plan has worked. _Maybe Ino is a little smarter than I thought..._

Ino has the upper hand now, and she's not going to waste it. "Now, Mind Transfer Jutsu!"

It's silent as everyone watches the two girls. Then, Ino's body slumps, a lot more relaxed than last time. She's definitely gone and used the jutsu now. Which means that her soul is now residing inside of Sakura, for the time being. Sakura's head twitches slightly, before a very un-Sakura-like laugh comes from her. "That's really unfortunate."

However, a few of the others don't see what I do. They seem to be under the impression that Sakura has won. When, in fact, she's just lost to Ino. But Naruto grins anyway. "Go Sakura!"

Ino lifts Sakura's head. "Not quite." _And there's our confirmation. Ino is the one controlling Sakura's body now._

Naruto's eyes flash between the two girls. "I don't get it, what's with Ino? And with Sakura? I mean, Sakura's acting really strange, don't you think? This is her chance!" Naruto pumps his fist into the air. "Do it already, Sakura! This is your chance!"

Kakashi sighs. "The Mind Transfer Jutsu worked. Sakura's done for." He's right, because if this were a real battle, Sakura would probably be dead right now.

"The mind transfer? Then does that mean that Sakura...that Sakura has..." Leee turns to Kakashi, having abandoned his teammates to join Sakura's cheering corner.

"Yes." Kakashi nods solemnly. "I'm afraid so. Sakura's spirit has been completely taken over by Ino. Ino's spirit is inside of Sakura right now."

Sakura's hand rises into the air slowly, but quickly draws attention, since Ino is immobile. "Now I, Sakura Haruno, would like to say that I with-"

"Noooo!" Naruto's voice rings out across the room. "Sakura, don't! You worked so hard to get here, Sakura! Don't disgrace yourself now by losing to that lame Ino girl!"

At first, it looks like nothing is going to happen. Until...Sakura's face contorts like she's going to have an aneurysm. Whatever is going on in there, I'm sure glad it's not going on in my head. Because that definitely doesn't look pleasant. There are shrieks and screams of discomfort, growing louder with every second.

The proctor looks on in confusion. "What's wrong? Aren't you withdrawing?" He gets no answer. "Well, are you or not?"

Instead of a screech of discomfort, what sounds like a battle cry rips itself from Sakura's lips. "No, I won't be withdrawing! Not today or any other day!"

 _It would seem that the two of them are fighting for control in there..._ That's the only thing I can come up with to explain what we're all seeing. It really looks like there's a war raging inside of Sakura. And since there's only one other force in there, apart from her, then it should be obvious what the two sides are.

Now, we just have to wait and see which one comes out victorious.

Moments later, Sakura's body forces a hand sign, and a mass of chakra bursts out of her, slamming into Ino's still form. Sakura collapses to her knees, breathing hard, and Ino, now conscious, pants as well.

 _Looks like we know who won._

Ino glares at Sakura, confusion written all over her face. "How can you have two spirits inside you!? Just what ar you, anyway!?"

If only Ino knew what it really means to have two spirits inside of you.

Sakura smiles softly. "Someone just as strong as she is beautiful. I mean, a girl's gotta be tough if she's gonna survive something like this."

As the two of them get back on their feet, my eyes flick back and forth, watching as the two of them, nearly completely drained of chakra, resort once again to beating each other to a pulp to finish this match. When their fists connect with their target, both of them are sent flying. And despite their best efforts, neither of them manages to get back up.

The proctor looks at the both of them, then nods. "Since neither combatant is able to continue, by double knock-out, no one gets through the fifth battle of this preliminary. This match is over."

Kakashi and Asuma jump down to retrieve their girls, before returning upstairs to set the both of them against the wall, where their teammates can have a good look at them. It's better if I give them some space, so I watch the reunion from a distance.

"Well...that was interesting." Hiro glances over towards the two girls. "Didn't expect a double knock-out, though."

"I did." Akito smiles slightly. "They've been so evenly matched this whole time, that I figured it would be something like this." His smile takes on a hint of guilt as he turns to me. "Sorry, I know that you wanted Sakura to win."

I shake my head. "It's alright. Considering that she's got very little offensive power, maybe it's better that she get knocked out now. The next round is probably going to be brutal. She can try again next year, that's probably the best thing for her."

"What about you?" Akito shifts closer to me. "Are you going to be alright i the next round?"

I raise an eyebrow at him. "After what you saw in the Forest of Death, are you seriously asking me that?"

Akito laughs, shaking his head. "Good point. That's my bad. Of course you'll be fine in the next round. Whoever you fight next, you'll probably crush."

I return his smile as my eyes flick to the board. "Let's hope..."


	32. Sand and Sound

**And to** **AngelSayori goes the prize. I was hoping that someone would spot the parallel. After all, Itachi seems to have a thing with foreheads (specifically, poking Sasuke's), and his sweet tooth already rubbed off on Ciara, so why not the forehead thing? I'll have a flashback later explaining how the habit rubbed off (you know, when Itachi actually shows up again).**

 **Also, I sent my laptop in to get fixed last weekend. I don't know when I'll get it back, but when I do, it'll be a lot easier to write up my chapters (you know, after I reinstall all of my programs and get everything saved and running again). Gotta love it when stuff breaks down... But at least it's still covered by warranty, so it's good that it happened now, rather than three months from now.**

 **Now, since the next match up is Temari's, I figure, I might as well add some more Gaara. You know, before everything implodes and goes to hell. Oh, and some medic interactions, just because I can (actually, because it's important, but we'll get to that later).**

* * *

The board whizzes through names again, picking two new ones out at random. And when it comes to a stop, it looks like it's going to be another kunoichi battle. My eyes flick over towards the Sand team. _So...looks like I'll get to see what's she's got going on._ Then I look back down at myself, remembering a few days ago, and sigh. _Why does she get to be so much bigger than me...? It's so not fair..._

The proctor waves the two forward. "For the sixth match, Tenten, Temari, get ready."

I lean closer to the railing, my eyes mainly fixed on Temari. _So...I wonder what she's got up her sleeve... Her first teammate is a puppet master, and the second..._ I lift my eyes from Temari and look across the room, right at Gaara, only to be met with an intense turquoise gaze. Time seems to freeze while I'm locked to those gem-like eyes. There's something about him...something that just seems very off to me. His eyes look so empty and blank, like there's no soul within him.

Then, something flashes within the blue depths, like a fish writhing in the water of a shallow pond. That same agitation from a few days ago begins to surface, and his eyes narrow slightly at me. _Who...are you?_

 _Shukaku._ Suzaku's voice rings in my head suddenly, providing an answer where I expected there to be none.

I take a sharp breath in, nearly rocking back onto my heels in alarm. _Suzaku?_ I wasn't expecting him to answer this time, since the last time I anted to know about Gaara, he didn't say a word. _Who...or what is Shukaku?_

What almost feels like a mental sigh floats through my mind. _You know...that there is a beast within your friend Naruto..._

 _Yeah..._ I've heard the whispers, and I've seen and felt the power within him. I don't like that Naruto is in pain because of the being within him, but after today, I think I'm a little less angry at it. No one asks to be born what they are, and I assume that these demons, if that's really what they are, are no different. So the one within Naruto isn't entirely to blame for how my friend is treated. _Is Shukaku...like you?_

 _Not in the way he thinks, no. He despises humans, whereas I find a select few to be interesting companions. Although, as for your true question, yes he is. But where the one inside of your friend possesses nine tails, Shukaku possesses only one._

 _And you have ten, right?_

 _That is correct, chick._

I'm starting to see something of a pattern here. _So...does that mean that there are others? With tails from two to eight?_

Instead of an answer, all I get is silence. Suzaku's presence has withdrawn once again. _I guess...I'll ask him another time. Maybe it's personal? Or maybe he doesn't know?_ Either way, until he feels like sharing or speculating, I'm not going to get an answer out of him. And forcing him to answer my questions whenever I feel like they ought to be answered is not a good way to build a relationship. And I might as well put some effort into this, since it would be a nuisance to be at war with someone inside of my own head.

A hand shakes my shoulder, jolting me back into consciousness. "What?"

I catch sight of Hiro's face, and he shakes his head wearily. "Jeez, and here I thought that you'd gone catatonic on us. You weren't responding, no matter what we did."

"Huh?" I don't remember anyone trying to get my attention. "What are you talking about?"

Hiro and Akito glance at each other uneasily. "That Sand guy, Gaara, you looked into each other's eyes, and both of you just froze. He snapped out of it already, but you were like a doll. Your eyes glazed over, and it was like you'd fallen asleep standing up with your eyes open."

"Oh." I had no idea that something like that would happen. But I'll have to make sure that it doesn't happen again. "Sorry, I was just daydreaming a bit. Don't mind me." Daydreaming while staring at a future opponent, is probably not the most convincing excuse.

Akito frowns, but doesn't press the issue. "Anyway, they're starting. You might want to pay attention."

He's got a point, so I turn my gaze back down to the two girls on the floor. "Have they actually done anything yet?"

"Well...yes, and no." Akito points over to Tenten. "They've talked a bit, and Tenten has moved back to that spot, but apart from that, no, they haven't thrown an attack yet."

Tenten leaps high into the air, and my eyes follow her up. "Looks like that's about to change."

Shuriken fly from Tenten's fingers, shooting straight for Temari. Then, I see something rather interesting. Her speed is incredible as she flicks a large fan from her back, opens it slightly, and blows just enough wind out to make the shuriken miss. And all of that is within the blink of an eye, way too fast for most people to see. But that's just one of the properties of the wind. Speed.

Hiro proves that well. "What just happened? Tenten is a way better shot than that." I'd forgotten for a moment that Hiro and Akito got held back, so they would have been in the same year as Tenten and her teammates.

My eyes find the fan, placed back on Temari's back. "Speed...and a little bit of wind. She can use the wind element, like me."

Tenten hits the ground again, mouth agape. "I missed her!? There's just no way!"

"What was that? A warm-up exercise?" Temari smirks like she doesn't have a care in the world. "Or maybe you're a little nervous and it' affected your aim. Is that it?" Temari's smirk only widens. "Rats, I was hoping I'd actually work up a sweat. But forget that idea, if this is the best you've got."

I glance at Temari, then shake my head. "This is a bad match-up for Tenten. This match is heavily weighted in Temari's favor." And from the sounds of it, Lee is greatly protesting his teammate's inability to hit her target. "I get the feeling that the Sand team is going to make a clean sweep."

Naruto overhears me, his eyes widening. "Seriously?"

I nod slightly. "That's what seems most likely to me." _I just hope that I'm wrong._ My eyes flick once more to the blue ones across the room, finding them staring back at me once more. _But I'm probably not..._ And judging by the look on Shikamaru's face, I think that our class' laziest student agrees with me.

The two of them watch each other, and it looks like Tenten is trying to evaluate her opponent's abilities. Little does she know, she's at a huge disadvantage here. I almost feel sorry for her, but I don't actually know Tenten, so the feeling is pale at best. If anything, I would just cheer for her because she's from the same village...if I couldn't already see how this match is going to end.

Tenten seems to make up her mind, and starts running around the room, circling Temari as she pulls out a scroll. "Alright, try this on for size!" She leaps high into the air, rolling the scroll open and twirling it around her body like a ribbon. She spins so quickly that it's almost like watching a tornado touch down. And from that tornado comes a rain of deadly weapons.

But, just like the last time, Temari moves too quickly to be seen, and all of the weapons miss, no matter how accurately Tenten tries to throw them. Although, as Temari takes out her fan and puts it on the ground, and Tenten comes back down to earth, I have to give them both some credit. Tenten has quite an impressive collection of weapons at her disposal, and Temari is doing pretty well at avoiding being hit by any of them.

Tenten, on the other hand, is decidedly less impressed. "No way! She stopped everything I threw! What has she got in that fan of hers!?" She growls, her frustration obviously getting to her.

Temari laughs. "Take a look." My eyes slide down to the purple dot on her fan. "This is the first moon, there are two more. When you see all three moons, you'll know you've lost the match."

 _Hm...so that's her game..._ I can see what she's doing. It's a fan, and she uses wind style. So, it stands to reason that the wider the surface of the fan, the more powerful the attacks will get. That's not even ninjutsu, that's just logic. _This girl is smart..._

Loud cheers come from Tenten's cheering section, meaning Lee. And while I get that he wants his teammate to win, he surely can't be stupid enough to think that she's got a shot. The fight is just too heavily weighted in Temari's favor. I only know one person who could make a come from behind win in this situation, and he's certainly not down there on the floor.

I glance at Naruto. _I wonder who he's going to get to fight...I just hope that it isn't Gaara. I don't want to see the aftermath of that kind of match._ I'm starting to have some real concerns about who Naruto might get matched up against. Because I don't want anything to happen to my best friend.

On the other hand, Lee's cheering puts a different expression on Tenten's face, and she looks more focused than ever. She pulls two scrolls from her weapons pouch and sets the on the ground, standing up. Whatever she's doing, it looks like it's her trump card. If this doesn't work, which I'm guessing it won't, then Tenten is out of this exam now.

Temari scoffs. "It won't work, whatever it is."

Tenten weaves a few hand signs, utter focus and determination in her eyes. "Rising Twin Dragons!" A resulting small scale explosion sends smoke into the air, obscuring everyone's vision and hiding the fight.

Then, two smoky dragons rise out of the cloud, Tenten along with them. The two dragons turn into scrolls, and Tenten starts grabbing summoned weapons from them. It's quite a feat of aerial acrobatics, to be able to move like that while suspended in mid-air. She hurls weapon after weapon at Temari in a storm of sharp blades.

"Hn, it doesn't matter how many you throw at me. It's all the same." Temari lifts up her fan, spreading it wider to reveal the second purple dot. "Moon number two!" She waves the fan through the air, blowing away every single weapon.

Tenten and her two scrolls fall to the ground, but it looks like she's not quite finished yet. "I'm not done!" She leaps back into the air, attaching thin wires to all of the weapons embedded in the floor, tugging on them with her fingers. The weapons rise back into the air, creating a veritable blanket of death.

But as Tenten rains the blanket of death down on Temari, the Sand ninja just opens the fan to the last moon and blows everything away. And when Tenten picks herself back up, Temari smirks. "Moon number three." She whirls the fan around, seeming to disappear from sight.

 _But if I know wind users..._ I direct my gaze upwards, looking in the one place that I would go in her position. _Bingo._ Using her fan as some kind of glider, Temari is floating through the air without a care. Tenten looks around the field, trying to spot her, but to no avail.

"Over here!" Temari looks down from on high, taunting Tenten. Then she flies right over Tenten's head, landing softly on the ground. "Now it's my turn." She drags her fan through the air, slicing it across her field of vision. "Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

The ensuing tornado isn't all it appears to be. To most people, it might just look like a simple whirlwind that picks up Tenten and holds her suspended in the air. But even before the cuts start to appear, I can see that the blades of wind are far from blunt. I have to hand it to Temari, she knows how to use her wind very effectively.

Then, the vortex dissipates, and Tenten falls from its grasp. Only to then fall, back first, right onto the end of Temari's fan. There was already enough blood coming from Tenten's cuts, but the impact draws some out of her mouth as well.

Naruto shivers a little. "Wow, that girl's really ruthless."

Temari regards Tenten distastefully. "Wasn't much of a match...kinda boring." And as a general consensus on the victory is reached, the proctor calls the match in Temari's favor.

"Wait a minute!" Lee jumps down from the balcony, heading straight for Tenten.

Temari dumps Tenten off her fan, tossing her across the ground, and right into Lee's arms. though, if he had been a second later, she would have hit the ground. She sneers at Lee. "Hey, nice catch."

"What is wrong with you!?" Lee's sense of justice seems to be flaring. "She may have lost, but that is no way to treat an opponent who has done her best!"

Temari slams her fan against the ground. "Oh, beat it! And take that sack of garbage with you!"

I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised when Lee takes great offense to the remark, and attacks Temari, despite not being in an official match. But she blocks the strike easily. "Not even close." She leers at Lee. "You know what? You're as dumb as you look."

"What did you say!?" Lee looks ready to go another round with her.

Fortunately, his sensei takes to the field. "Lee, stop!"

"But Gai-Sensei-"

"Temari." Gaara finally raises his voice. "Forget them. The match is over, so get up here. You won. Why are you wasting your time with that pathetic loser and his ridiculous mentor?"

Lee looks like he's going to blow up again, so I raise my voice. "Lee, bring her up here." That grabs the attention of nearly the entire room. "I'll tend to her."

Lee's eyes widen, then roam back to Tenten. He nods slightly, then picks her up from the floor as a cleaning team comes in to clean up the weapons before the next match. He jumps back onto the balcony, landing right next to me. "Can you help her?"

Chakra glows around my hand, and I pass it over her various cuts and bruises. "Yeah, I can manage. She hasn't taken too much damage, but after I patch her up, you should take her to the infirmary for some rest. She's not going to be waking up any time soon."

Lee's face twists up in agony for his teammate. "I see."

I shoot him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that she's okay." I reach back for my medical kit, pulling an antiseptic ointment from inside it. I open the small jar and coat my fingers in the sweet-smelling paste. "It's going to sting, but it's the strongest I've got. Who knows what kind of germs we all could have picked up in that forest..."

Tenten squirms a little while I apply the stinging ointment, and Lee watches carefully as I tend to his teammate's cuts and bruises. Most of the cuts close up, and the bruises get a little smaller. But for the newly battered patches, the bruises likely won't show up for another few hours at least. And there's not much I can do to stop the inflammation without ice. _Note to self, find out if there are any kinds of freezing ointment that I can carry around to treat new bruises with._

I glance at Lee and shake my head. "You go watch the next match. I'll finish up with Tenten and go back to watching once I'm done, okay?"

He grimaces slightly, then gets to his feet and returns to the railing. And a few seconds later, he and Naruto start shouting about how they want to be picked next to fight. I shake my head a bit. _Those two...it's like they're eager to get their asses handed to them._ Not that I actually think Naruto would lose. Not unless he got the last Sand match.

The electronic board beeps, and there's a disheartened groan from both of them. And judging from the cheers, Shikamaru is the next one on the ground. So I glance over at Lee. "Who's fighting?"

He stares at the board a moment, as well as across the room, before turning to me. "Shikamaru Nara, and Kin Tsuchi from the Sound Village."

"The Sound, huh?" I suppose that Akito and Hiro aren't going to be too pleased that another one of those guys got taken out. Shikamaru may be too lazy to be the most effective ninja, but I've seen him finish puzzles in minutes, when it would take most people days to figure them out. I think I even gave him one on his birthday, back when he actually used to hang out with Naruto. It took him a whole five minutes to finish it.

Shikamaru's cheering section consists of a very enthusiastic Ino. But, since I've still got an injured Tenten on my hands, I'll have to leave the spectating to the others. Because even though I'm doing pretty well in treating her cuts and bruises, it's her back that I'm worried about. Nothing seems to be broken, but I'd rather not move her unless it's straight to the infirmary.

Two minutes later, with all of her cuts and bruises either bandaged or completely healed, I turn to their sensei. "Okay, you can take her to the infirmary now. There's nothing broken, but she needs to be handled delicately."

Gai nods, kneeling and softly picking up his little kunoichi, before disappearing in a swirl of smoke. And with Tenten taken care of, I get to my feet and head over to the railing. _Now...what's going on here?_

"Shikamaru!" Ino gasps and looks down, just as I set eyes on Shikamaru taking two senbon needles to the shoulder. I wince. _Yeesh, talk about hitting close to a vital spot. I don't know if that girl has bad aim, or if she's just sadistic._

Naruto grumbles slightly. "Well, that didn't take long."

"Don't be so sure." Sakura grabs onto the railing. "He's not beaten yet."

Shikamaru wraps his fingers around the needles carefully. "One inch higher, and that would have been a fatal hit." He pulls the needles out and tosses them to the floor. "Okay, now I get a turn."

"Sorry, that was your turn." Kin pulls on a couple of threads, ones that reflect dimly in the light. And in response, a couple of small bells chime. I must not have heard them earlier because I was distracted by Tenten.

"What the?" Shikamaru wobbles a bit. "What's going on?" He falls to his knees, his balance seemingly shot. And I think I know why, because the sound of those bells is irritating my ears. With Shikamaru's proximity to them, whatever the effects are, he's getting them full blast.

"You see, you don't ever ask 'for whom the bell tolls'. Because it tolls for thee." Well, Kin is certainly being a bit cryptic to start with. "This bell sends off a peculiar sound vibration that travels through the outer and inner ear, then directly to the brain. first comes paralysis, and soon, you'll start hallucinating." Shinkamaru groans at her words and covers his ears. But it's futile. "You can't block the sound out once it's inside your head. It's useless."

Shikamaru uncovers his ears and blinks furiously. "I can't...tell which one of them is the real one."

 _Real one?"_ I frown down at the two of them, my eyes traveling to Kin. _Is he seeing more than one of her? Is that the hallucination she's talking about?_ I can see how such a hallucination would be a good thing to induce to your opponent while in combat. It makes it difficult, if not impossible to land a hit, paralysis aside.

Kin smirks. "You can't move your arms or legs, and even if you could, you wouldn't know which one of us to throw your shadow at." She raises her hand, carrying senbon in it. "Face it, you're cooked, little man. I'm going to cook you nice and slow over a hot fire." If she weren't threatening to kill him, I would be rather worried about what seems to be some rather cannibalistic thoughts.

Shikamaru twitches defiantly. "You think it's that easy, huh?" Kin just smiles at him and tosses three senbon, getting direct hits easily, judging by Shikamaru's groans, and the blood that dots his clothes.

Kin chuckles. "That was three, next time, I'll throw five. Each time, a couple more, until you end up looking ike a hedgehog." She doesn't seem to realize that with his spiky hair, he already kind of looks like one.

"Stop playing games, why don'tcha? If you're so tough, then get it over with. Stop wasting my time." Shikamaru may be lazy, but he also hates wasting time on things he doesn't enjoy. It's a bit of a contradiction, but it just means that he'll use his head to get out of as much work as possible.

 _Which begs the question...what the hell does he think he's doing? He's way smarter than this, so what game is he playing?_

Kin's eyes widen in excitement. "I see, so you're not a fan of my slow and painful method, huh?" She raises more senbon. "Fine, suit yourself. We'll do it the quick way, then. And painful." She really seems to enjoy pain. Though she probably won't like it much when it's being inflicted on her. And as she starts to twitch, it would seem that our class' lazy genius has lived up to his skills. "W-what's wrong!? Can't move my arm!" Her arm twitches down to her side, following Shikamaru's own movement.

Shikamaru gets to his feet, grinning slightly. "Guess my lame shadow jutsu was a success after all."

"But, you haven't thrown any shadows."Kin tries to struggle, but ut;s futile. "No way! I made sure of it!"

Shikamaru smirks. "You really still don't see it?"

My eyes flicker over the scene, searching for any and all shadows, though it's a bit hard to do that from up here. Until... _No way...he didn't._ Kin looks around, searching for that same shadow, but it looks like she just can't figure it out. "What do you mean!?"

"Look at that thread you're holding." Shikamaru flicks his eyes to the two threads connects to the bells hanging from the wall behind him. "Don't you find it strange that it would even cast a shadow at this height?" The shadow begins to swirl around, growing in size, until it properly connects the two of them. "Course, you didn't notice it. Because you were concentrating on other things, like killing me."

She looks down, her face twisted in anger. "Ugh, the shadow spreading out around me. And I didn't see it coming." Well, she is certainly not pleased with this turn of events.

"Right." Shikamaru looks quite pleased with himself. "I stretched my shadow out along the line of that thread, and followed it all the way back. Now, I'm attached to you." He raises his arm, forcing Kin to do the same.

Though, she looks distinctly less worried than earlier. "And now? So we mirror each other's movements, so what? A cute trick, but what do you gain by it?"

"Man you're annoying. Shikamaru manages to groan and sigh at the same time, he must be really annoyed now. "Just shut up and watch." He reaches down, flicking open his holster and forcing Kin to do the same, both of them removing a shuriken.

Kin flinches. "You must be insane! If you throw that shuriken at me, you'll just be attacking yourself!"

Shikamaru grins. "Makes it kind of interesting, doesn't it?"

"You wouldn't! You couldn't!" Kin starts to panic, finally losing her cool.

"Oh yeah!?" Shikamaru, on the other hand, obviously has a plan, because he's just looking more and more eager. "Like a game of chicken, let's see who ducks first!" He throws his shuriken, forcing Kin to do the same.

"You're crazy!" Kin's eyes widen as the two shuriken fly through the air. They fly right around each other, aiming straight for the other's face.

Shikamaru leans back, going to avoid the shuriken, and Kin copies the movement because of the shadow possession that Shikamaru still has trained on her. But while Shikamaru has enough room to bend all the way backwards, Kin's head smacks into the wall behind her, the shuriken embedding itself in the wall, just above her head. And judging by the sound of the crack, I'd say that Kin is definitely getting a concussion out of this, maybe even a cracked skull. Cement walls can be a real pain.

Shikamaru grins, upside down. "And that's what I call using your head." Even though she can't hear him, I guess he feels like he needs to lord his victory anyway. "A wise shinobi carefully scouts the battlefield, and never loses sight of his position on it." He snickers slightly. "That was your problem, I made sure she was so busy focusing on me, that she didn't notice the wall inches behind her head. So when we both dodged backwards...Ka-bong. Now who's hearing bells?"

The proctor raises his hand. "Winner of the seventh match, Shikamaru Nara."

I roll my eyes as the others start cheering. "Hey, Mr. Hedgehog. Why don't you come up here so I can pull those quills out?"

Shikamaru glances back and yawns. "Alright." He jumps into the air, landing on the balcony next to his teammates. "Just don't pull too hard."

I laugh and roll my eyes as I shuffle over to him. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now hold still." I wrap my fingers around the senbon in his shoulder, tugging it out in one motion. He winces slightly, and I use the leftover ointment on my fingers to trace over all of the marks the needles left in his arms. "Geez, you really got lucky. She almost severed a few arteries."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He yawns slightly. "I'm fine, just go and watch the next match."

I snort lightly and get to my feet, tossing him a small roll of bandages. "Then patch yourself up a bit. You'll be all healed up in a week."

"Whatever." He unravels the bandages and goes on to ignore me. but that's about as much of a thank you as I'll get out of Shikamaru. He just things that everything is a drag.

Sliding over next to Naruto, I'm starting to feel a lot better than I did earlier. "So, who do you think is going to be up-" The electronic board stop, and I slap my palm to my forehead. "Of course it is..."

Naruto grins widely, then starts jumping for joy. "Yeah! It's here! It's here at last! The moment I've been waiting for!" I'm really starting to regret standing next to Naruto. He can be really loud when he wants to be. "Finally, I get a chance to show what I've got!"

I roll my eyes and thump Naruto on the back. "Alright, I know you're excited, but save some of the for the match." I grin at him, showing him my full support. "Now go down there and kick his butt."

Sakura smiles eagerly. "Good luck, Naruto. Do your best!"

Naruto laughs and pumps his fist into the air. "You know it!"

"Alright, alright, now go!" I push him off towards the stairs, reveling in his enthusiasm. "You need to get down there if you want to win!"

Naruto grabs my hand and squeezes it tightly. "I'll see you and Sasuke in the next round!"

I squeeze his hand back with a smile. "Yeah, work hard down there, and I'll see you in the finals." His grinning face is all I see as he races down the stairs, eager to prove himself in this match.

 _Good luck, Naruto._


	33. I Believe in You

**Okay, so the goal of this chapter is essentially to contrast Ciara and Naruto against everyone else. Because, let's face it, there aren't that many people who truly believe that Naruto would beat Kiba at this point (which is why it's such a shock when he beats Kiba into the ground). And these two like to talk...a lot. Then again, it would be out of character for them not to be bratty little chatterboxes. So, very long chapter ahead.**

 **By the way, my laptop is being a bit temperamental, but I'm making do with it. It's still not fixed, though.**

 **On another note, I'm toying around with an idea that I've had for a while. Well, the idea has been in development since the story began, but I'm finally putting a label to it in my head, and it's going to have a huge effect on how Ciara's personality..."develops". Because no one goes through the shit these kids do without coming out of it with some psychological damage.**

* * *

Naruto looks so happy to finally be down on the floor. Maybe now he'll get to burn off all of that energy that cheering doesn't seem to use up. He's been like a little kid on a sugar rush this whole time. And I've seen him on many a sugar rush, so I would know better than anyone else. Though a few of those sugar rushes may or may not have been my fault.

The proctor coughs, he really needs to go lie down or something, because this much coughing can't possibly be healthy. "Now, the eighth match. Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka." It's all up to Naruto to secure himself a place in the finals.

Naruto grins widely, pumping his fist in the air. "I've been waiting forever for this!" Then he smirks at Kiba. "Sorry Kiba, don't take it personally if I blow you away!" He's really getting into the idea of taunting his opponent. then again, with his eagerness, I suppose that bragging comes naturally.

Kiba doesn't take that well, not that he ever really took anything well. He was more annoying than Naruto while we were in the academy, mostly because he's always been kind of stuck up. "That's just what I was gonna say! Only not so politely!" He growls irritably. "Right, Akamaru!?" His puppy yips, sticking its head out of his jacket.

Naruto's eye twitches. "Oh yeah!? Well, talking's easy! Let's see what you gotta say at the end of the match!" I sigh. _These two..._

Kiba growls angrily. "Little squirt." He pulls his pet from his jacket, settling the little white dog down on the floor.

"Wait a sec, are you kidding me?" Naruto points down at the little dog. "What's the puppy doing here!? He's just gonna get in the way!"

"Deal with it! I never go into battle without Akamaru!" Akamaru barks in agreement with Kiba's words. Though it certainly draws my interest.

My eyes travel from Kiba and Akamaru to Kankuro on the other balcony. _So...one uses a puppet in battle, and another uses a dog._ My eyes drift to Shino next. _Bugs..._ My gaze finds Temari next. _A fan...and Tenten used weapons. We've got quite a variety of fighting types here. I wonder if that's normal for an exam like this..._

Naruto groans slightly. "Come on, isn't that against the rules or something?" He turns to the proctor with his question.

"No." The proctor calmly shakes his head. "No. Like Shino's bugs, they are a part of him. He is within the rules."

Naruto seems to need a second to compute that. "Uh...whatever. Fine with me." He turns his complaints on their head. "I do my best work with a handicap!" I actually won't contest him there. For some reason, the worse the situation gets, the better he seems to do. _Maybe it's the adrenaline..._

"Hah! We'll just see about that!" Kiba grins, looking rather confident. Overconfident, if you were to ask me. He turns to his little dog. "Akamaru, you stay here and leave all this to me. I've got it." Akamaru growls back at him, not sounding too pleased.

"Go on, Naruto! You can't lose to this jerk!" Sakura's eyes are bugging out furiously as her hands clamp down on the railing. It's actually rather amusing, because the last time I checked, Sakura found Naruto nothing but annoying. And yet, here she is, cheering him on like a teammate should. _I guess they must have bonded while in the forest. The last time I saw them together, she was still looking down on him._

I look down at the floor and smile. "I just hope that the idiot doesn't go and hurt himself too bad." Though knowing Naruto, he's not going to get out of this without a few cuts and bruises. He fights rough, and with little to no regard for his own safety.

Akito glances at me curiously. "How are you so sure that he'll win? I doubt that Kiba is a pushover."

A tingling sensation bubbles up in my stomach. "Because I know Naruto. And he's not going to stop fighting until he's won. And he's not nearly as weak and clumsy as people seem to think."

Akito's eyes narrow slightly, before he looks back down at the impending battle. "In that case, I suppose that I'll just have to watch and see for myself."

"Yes...you will." My smile widens, and I raise my voice. "Don't break any bones, Naruto! I don't want to have to patch you up again!"

He turns around to look up at me with a big grin. "I'll be fine! Don't worry so much!"

Kiba glances up at me, then scoffs at Naruto. "Look, I feel sorry for you, so I'm gonna finish you off with one shot. Kay?"

"Yeah, is that right?" Naruto grins widely. "Man, you're even dumber than you look if you think you can beat me."

"You sure talk tough for such a little squirt!" Kiba hits below the belt by attacking Naruto's height. And it also reminds me that I'm even shorter than Naruto is, and he's the shortest guy from our graduating class. It stings more than a little, particularly because I hate being so tiny.

The proctor looks from Kiba to Naruto, then backs away from them. "When you're ready, you can begin."

Immediately, Kiba gets down on one knee, his hands pressed together in preparation for an attack. His chakra level spikes, and a growl comes out of his throat. "Here I come!" And he springs at Naruto, down on all fours like that dog he loves so much.

Kiba sends Naruto flying with an elbow to the ribs, and it looks like it hurts, judging by the way it nearly throws him against the wall. He must have flown a good twenty feet. But it's a bit weird that Naruto would let himself get thrown like that. Usually, he would at least try to roll out of the impact, or get right back up, groaning. I've seen him take harder hits than this before, and he's never just laid down and taken it.

Kiba smirks. "This little guy's gonna be out for a while. You can call the match."

Off to my left, there's a loud sigh. "I thought as much." Shikamaru shakes his head derisively.

Ino frowns. "Yeah, I thought Kiba might be too much for him, but that was fast!"

On the other side of my team, and a cringing Sakura, Lee winces. "Oh, Naruto, that was embarrassing."

Across the room, Kankuro snorts. "What was that? I blinked and it was over! That kid's pitiful."

I'm sick and tired of all the comments, so I pull myself up and sit right on the railing, my legs dangling over the field. "You know, this is hardly the time to take a nap, Naruto! So get off your ass and fight!" He twitches just a little, it's hardly even noticeable. So I take in a deep breath and raise my voice. "I said get up! Hurry up and pound Kiba into the ground!"

Kiba looks up at me, snorts, then turns away from Naruto, completely unaware that my best friend is not getting kicked out of the exams this quickly. He and I will go to the finals together, I know it. And there's nothing that will stop us.

A smile blossoms on Naruto's face, despite the blood trailing from his lips. His hand twitches again, then he groans and pushes himself onto his knees. "Yeah, yeah, I know. We're going to the finals together, right?"

Kiba turns around, shock plastered all over his face. "What!? No way!"

Shock and surprise ring the room. Except, of course, for me. Instead, a wide smile spreads across my face, curling into a smirk when Naruto gets to his feet. "Good boy...now show everyone what you're really made of. It's time to stop hiding behind that mask of sheer stupidity." _You are brave and kind and strong. And now, it's time to show it to everyone here._

He breathes in and out, then glares across the room at Kiba. "Don't ever..." He breathes in deeply and his glare turns into an almost feral grin. "Don't ever underestimate me!"

"Atta'boy, Naruto!" Sakura's face glows with excitement, and I honestly think that this is the happiest and most supportive she's ever been about Naruto.

Kiba rolls his eyes and crouches. "Yeah, yeah, more tough talk. Look at yourself in a mirror! You're a mess!"

Naruto's grin doesn't waver. "I just wanted to see what you've got! Frankly, you hit like an old lady. You have a better chance of winning this if you send that puppy in to fight for you."

"You're gonna regret that..." Kiba growls like an animal, and even under that heavy jacket, I can see the tightening of his body, his muscles readying themselves for battle. "Come on, Akamaru."

The boy and his dog race forward, only for Kiba to pull some smoke bombs and toss them all around Naruto. And once the smoke billows in a cloud around my friend, Kiba disappears into the purple smoke, completely obscured from view. All that emanates from the cloud is a few yelps and pained groans, all in Naruto's voice. Though it's nothing that sounds fatal so far.

Suddenly, Naruto appears out of the cloud, seemingly making a break for it. But Akamaru, who stayed outside of the smoke cloud, leaps at Naruto, latching onto his arm with sharp teeth, and topples him back into the cloud of dust and smoke. Though, it's rather disappointing, because we all know that there's something going on in there, and yet, we can't see a thing because of all the smoke. And that's some pretty good smoke too, it's heavy and thick, making it hard to dissipate, and impossible to see through until it does.

Kiba leaps out of the cloud of smoke, landing a safe distance away while waiting for the results to show themselves. The could slowly goes away, revealing Naruto lying on the floor, and Akamaru sitting next to him, wagging his little white behind.

"Yeah, this fight is over!" But as Kiba says that, and Akamaru runs toward him, I just know that it isn't. "Good doggy! Way to g-" Because the feel of Naruto's chakra is coming from Akamaru too.

The tiny white form races towards Kiba, jumping at him like a hyperactive pet would to greet their owner, before sinking his teeth into Kiba's arm, shocking Kiba into total and utter confusion. "Hey, Akamaru? What are you doing?"

I cover my mouth with my hand and try to keep myself from laughing. _Oh Naruto...how the hell did you come up with a plan like that!?_ And then, his voice comes from the little white dog. "Surprise! Gotcha!" And he laughs as he reverses the transformation, revealing that he's the one with their teeth digging into Kiba's arm. And while he does that, his clone moves away, carrying a captive Akamaru with him.

Kiba glares at him and tries to tug his arm away. "You used a Transformation Jutsu! You little...get off!" He thrashes in Naruto's grip. "Let go of me!"

Naruto finally lets go, backing away with a sickened expression on his face. He spits a little and coughs immediately after. "You smell even worse than the dog!"

Kiba looks around in a panic. "What'd you do with him!? Where is he!?"

Naruto's clone holds up Akamaru. "He's right here!"

"How did you-" Kiba growls, his anger definitely spiking.

"Whoa, is that really Naruto?" Ino looks down at him in shock. "Who would've thought that Naruto would be a match for Kiba?" I did.

Shikamaru narrows his eyes, as though analyzing the situation. "To balance a Transformation Jutsu and a Clone Jutsu at the same time...there's no way he should be able to do that." He glances at me suspiciously. "And you don't look surprised at all."

"Why should I be?" I think back to one of our confrontations with Zabuza. "After all, I've seen him do it before." Except back then, he turned himself into a giant shuriken and let Sasuke hurl him across the battlefield. This time, he impersonated a living being.

"Me too." Sakura grins. "He did it while we were still in the forest. It was incredible." She looks down at the scene and takes in a deep breath. "That was amazing, Naruto!"

Both boys grin, though Kiba looks more angry than excited. "What do you know? Gotten a little stronger, I see. But not nearly strong enough!" He points challengingly at Naruto. "Cause now, I'm gettin' serious!"

"Oh?" Naruto raises an eyebrow and pouts slightly. "Well good, I was hoping you would. Because I want to seriously knock you out!"

Shikamaru's eyes widen. "I don't know what happened. But this ain't the Naruto we used to know."

My eyes sweep across our side of the room, a slight smile on my lips. "Then maybe...all of you should go and reconsider what you know." My eyes find Naruto again, and my smile hardens onto my face. "Because there is so much that none of you know..." Not that I'm going to be straight and tell them. They can find that out in due time, or when Naruto is ready to tell them himself.

My eyes find Kiba, who has stopped moving, rather than just springing in to attack again. _He's calm...he's trying to think about this._ A smile grows on his face as he watches Naruto. _Well...in that case..._

I open my mouth and smirk down at Kiba. "Hey, Kiba! Remember our bet earlier!?" I might as well make the most out of this. Especially since I inherited a decent sweet tooth from one of my favorite uncles. And it's only grown since then.

He freezes and looks up at me. "Yeah? What about it?"

I can already tell that he's going to take my bait. "If Naruto wins, I want dessert as well."

His eye twitches. "Seriously!?" I nod, and his nostrils flare. "Fine! But when I win, you're covering dinner instead!" It only makes sense that he would turn it around like that. Not that it really matters.

"Deal!" I have the utmost faith in Naruto, which means that I'm certain that I'll be getting dinner and dessert, courtesy of Kiba. _Hm...I wonder what kind of dessert I should pick..._

Kiba reaches back into his pouch, rummaging around for something. "Naruto, if I were you, I'd let Akamaru go." He pulls a tiny pill from his pouch and flicks it towards Akamaru's mouth.

The little dog gulps up the pill, and my eyes widen. _No way...he wouldn't use that on an animal, would he?_ I've heard that Kiba's family raises ninja dogs, but feeding a food pill to a dog might not be the best idea, especially since there could be something in there that might hurt the animal.

But rather than looking sickened by the introduction of the pill, Akamaru starts to growl louder. Then, his fur begins to bristle and darken, turning a dull crimson. _Well, I suppose that's where he gets the name Akamaru from._ He kicks back into the clone's stomach, dispelling the second Naruto and escaping its hold.

Naruto's eyes widen. "What the heck happened!? What was that thing you fed him!? How come all his fur just turned red!?"

"Are you sure you wanna stick around to find out?" Kiba pops a pill into his own mouth, and I feel my own eye narrowing. _So that's his game... I just hope that he knows what he's doing, because taking a pill like that is like taking a shot of pure caffeine. And the crash is not going to be pretty._ On the other hand, it's not like the food pills give Kiba as much of an advantage as he thinks, because Naruto has so much natural chakra and stamina that he doesn't need pills to boost them.

Kiba voice roughens as he crouches to the ground. "Let's go, Akamaru!" The little dog yips as Kiba bows his head, and the pup jumps right onto Kiba's back. "Beast Mimicry: Man-Beast Clones!" Smoke erupts around Akamaru, parting only to reveal that the little dog has been turned into a clone of Kiba, though both possess sharp teeth and claws, and look distinctly more bestial than before.

Naruto backs up slightly, a flash of fear in his eyes. Then, he turns to the proctor. "Hey, wait a minute! He took something! No fair, that's cheating! He oughta be disqualified!"

"Food pills." The proctor offers a quick explanation. "They're just another tool, they're allowed." It seems as though there's nothing off limits here. At least, nothing that any genin should be capable of. Though I'm sure that we're surprising those observing, considering the myriad of special skills that have been displayed so far.

"Argh! You're no help at all." Naruto growls in frustration, reminding me that when the preliminaries are over, I should probably go over all the different kinds of medicines, poisons, and other tools that enemies could be carrying. As a medic, I have to know these things, mostly because I carry most of them myself.

 _Great...now I just have to find a way to get him to sit still for an hour while I explain it all to him..._ "Fantastic..." I groan slightly and hit my head against my palm. "I'm not looking forward to that lesson."

Akito blinks at me bemusedly. "What lesson?"

"Teaching Naruto about the vast array of ninja tools that can be carried around that aren't included in any weapon categories." Because special weapon categories are definitely not my forte. My two tanto are the only weapons I carry, apart from the standard kunai and shuriken common to all ninja. If Naruto wants a lesson in weaponry, I think I'll just send him to Tenten.

Kiba's growls echo through the room like a rumble of thunder. "Let's finish this now!" He and Akamaru spring away from each other, coming back together from both sides to swipe at Naruto with their claws.

Luckily, Naruto is pretty fast, and I suppose that being smaller than all of the other guys helps, because it's easy for him to squeeze out of bad situations. Unless he's severely outnumbered of course. Though, with his shadow clones, he's certainly not outnumbered anymore. Naruto slides across the ground and well out of Kiba and Akamaru's reach as they crash into the floor.

Though, once the dust settles, Kiba and Akamaru are at it again, racing around the room, leaping and swiping at Naruto, trying to get in a decisive hit. Though, even with Naruto on the defensive, he's dodging the two of them pretty well. He may be off balance, but he's light on his feet and as quick as a dancer.

Kiba growls as Naruto leaps through the air. "Now I've got you!" He swirls himself into a drill-like shape, using his momentum to push himself forward, Akamaru following suit. "Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu: Fang over Fang!" The two of them smash themselves into Naruto, sending him flying across the room once again. There's blood all over Naruto's face, and it definitely doesn't help that he crashes down on his head.

Kiba rises to his feet and grins. "I told you it was gonna get serious."

Naruto twitches slightly. "I will..." He gasps, and it sounds like his insides have taken a bit of a pounding. "I will be Hokage. I will." It's his dream, his dream is what's keeping him going. And a dream that I fully support. Well, once he grows up a bit and gets his head on straight. But that will come with time. They wouldn't make a kid Hokage anyway, that's just not done.

"And how're you gonna do that? By lying flat on your face?" Kiba laughs at Naruto's assertion, essentially ridiculing his hopes and dreams. "I got news for ya! I'm gonna be Hokage!" He says it so callously, just to hurt Naruto, and then he bursts into a fit of laughter at the idea. _And to think...Kiba actually used to be half-decent once upon a time ago..._

I clench my fists and bite the inside of my cheek. "You don't know anything..." My voice is only a whisper, too quiet for anyone else to head.

"Come on, do you really believe a weakling like you can be Hokage? You must be weak in the head!" Kiba's laughter rings out, making my anger swell larger by the second. And it takes all of my self-control not to go and do something stupid.

Luckily, I don't have to do anything, because Sakura's voice rings out beside me. "On your feet, Naruto!"

Naruto stumbles to his feet, blood running down his face in streams. But unlike the state of his body, his voice is calm and cool and strong. "Sorry, but...you can forget about being Hokage. Because I'm...the top dog around here." Naruto's eyes flash with determination, by far one of his best qualities.

Kiba shakes his head. "You're kidding...you're a real glutton for punishment, aren't ya?" More like he can take a beating and keep on going, but that's semantics. Naruto stands there defiantly, and Kiba seems to lose a little nerve. "Okay, its your funeral. I'm gonna make sure you don't get up again!" He sprints forward, followed closely by his still transformed dog. "Let's go, Akamaru!"

The two of them race at Naruto, spinning towards him like cyclones, and prompting Naruto to jump into the air in order to dodge the both of them. And though he manages to dodge the brunt of the attack, he still gets nicked on the way down, throwing him off balance and screwing up his landing.

As Naruto gets back on his feet, Kiba pulls out a couple more smoke bombs, replaying one of his earlier tactics. Naruto can't see a thing in there, giving Kiba the advantage. And between the idiot and his pet, Naruto is good and trapped in there, probably dancing around to try and dodge all of the random attacks that he's certainly being subjected to by the two canine cyclones.

Eventually, the smoke disappears once again, revealing Naruto on his feet, though with just a bit more blood running down his face. _I'll have to give him a check-up when he gets up here. Even if he heals quickly, it's probably better to make sure that nothing gets infected._ Mostly because I have no idea whether or not the fox can prevent infections when he's healing Naruto.

Kiba grins at the sight. "Hah, looks like you've run outta gas, kid."

"Yeah?" Naruto gets into a fighting stance. "Bring it on, Dog Breath, cause no matter how many clones of yourself you make, I'l still have enough gas to beat you!" And his sheer stamina can certainly attest to that. I'm sure that a lot of other opponents probably wouldn't have been able to keep getting back up like this.

"Hah, you've always got a snappy comeback." Kiba moves forward a bit. "Let's see ya come back from this!" He glances at his partner. "Ready, Akamaru!?" The dog man growls, and the two of them charge forward, more smoke bombs in hand.

Now, the smoke bomb strategy may have worked the first couple of times, but Kiba is ignoring a basic rule of combat. The more you use a strategy, and fail to knock out your opponent with it, the more time your opponent has to adapt to that strategy and find a way to counter it, or use it to their advantage. And while tactics may not be Naruto's strong suit, he's not going to just ignore them forever.

But, knowing Naruto...when he does come up with a plan, it's probably going to be either very creative, or very weird. Probably both.

Kiba, rushing in for a final attack, stops cold as the smoke begins to dissipate. Because, standing there inside the remnants of the smoke cloud with him are two other versions of himself. There are three Kibas staring each other down. _Naruto...are you crazy? How can you be sure he'll fall for that!?_ To me, it seems illogical. Then again, I'm watching all of this from above, so maybe the birds eye view just makes it easy to keep my eyes on which one is which.

Kakashi hums approvingly. "Very clever." Sakura looks at him questioningly, so he glances back down at the match. "Wait, you'll see."

The last of the smoke disappears, revealing all three identical faces on the ground. And Sakura's eyes widen, along with her grin. "Perfect! Good one, Naruto! Brilliant!" She jumps up and down excitedly. "He's made himself look like Kiba, so now, Kiba doesn't know which one to go after. He's got to be careful, because he might be attacking Akamaru."

"And meanwhile, Naruto is safe attacking either one!" Lee smiles eagerly. "Briliant idea! Whooooo!"

I nod slightly. "I suppose that if Kiba hasn't been keeping track of Akamaru and Naruto's positions, then this could work..." Though, I can tell the three of them apart, since Akamaru can't talk, and Naruto is still in the same position as earlier.

Kiba grumbles slightly. "Okay, so I see you've gotten better at the Transformation Jutsu." I nearly choke at the observation. _Just wait until you see his Sexy Jutsu..._ I remember accidentally walking in on that, once. Never again. "But you've forgotten one little thing. I admit, you look just like me, and that threw me for a minute. But I still know which one is you." _Shit._ "You can't hide from me. Wanna know why!?" he aims a punch at Naruto, smacking him right in the face. And as Naruto goes flying, Kiba's nostrils flare. "I could smell ya, kid. There's just no getting past our sense of smell. Tough luck." He laughs slightly. "Game's over."

But, when the transformation is undone and the smoke puffs around what was once Kiba, instead of Naruto appearing in the smoke, it's Akamaru. I raise an eyebrow at that. _What? I kept track of all of their movements, so that had to be Naruto. It even feels like him._ With every passing day, it feels like I've been getting more and more sensitive to his presence. There's no way I would mistake him for a dog.

Kiba, on the other hand, starts to panic at the sight of a battered Akamaru. "So it's you..." He turns around and slugs the other copy of himself. "Messing with me!" That clone goes flying as well, and out of the smoke slides yet another battered white dog. And that is certainly enough to seriously freak out Kiba. He's definitely not thinking with his head now.

Naruto gets up, and he poofs out of his transformation into Akamaru, taking his chance at surprising Kiba to kick him right in the chin. Kiba goes flying, looking a little dazed as he crashes to the floor right next to Akamaru. And while Kiba growls,Naruto laughs at the turn of events. _I guess all those years of pranking people have finally come in handy._ I smile down at him, proud of his unorthodox, but effective application of his personal experience to battle tactics.

Naruto's grin widens. "The smart shinobi is careful how he uses his jutsu, otherwise, its liable to come back and bite him in the ass. Dummy."

The insults and taunts are clearly riling Kiba up. He's got as hot a temper as Naruto, though with a much less happy-go-lucky personality to back it up. How Naruto has managed to retain that is a mystery and a miracle, but in any case, it helps to balance out his raging temper at times. What Kiba does to control his, is biting down on his hand, enough to draw quite a lot of blood.

Once he's calm, Kiba pulls out eight shuriken from his holsters. Naruto's eyes flick to the weapons, his grin ever present. "So, are you finally getting serious, Kiba? Good." He brings his hands together in a sign to help him focus his chakra. "Cause that means it's time to unveil something special I've been saving. My super secret killer move!" That has me raising an eyebrow, since Naruto never told me anything about this.

"Your what!?" Kiba snorts irritably. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Huh? Where'd he come up with that?" Sakura blinks, then turns to me. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"

I frown and shake my head. "No, I don't. Actually, I thought that you might, since you spent almost a week with him in the forest." Naruto hasn't told me anything about working on any new techniques since we got back from the Land of Waves.

Lee glances at us, the pumps his fist into the air. "You can leave it to Naruto to have a trick up his sleeve. Well done!" It's funny to hear Lee say that, considering that he's known Naruto for less than a week, and already seems to have picked up on both Naruto's personality, as well as how unpredictable he can be. In fact, I wouldn't put it past him to have come up with this move halfway through his match. His brain seems to work best in the heat of battle anyway.

"Ha! Super secret killer move? Get outta here, it's a bluff!" Kiba grins, taunting Naruto, rather than taking him seriously. And that might just be what leads him to lose this match.

"Yeah? Well, try me and find out!" Naruto holds his ground, refusing to back down from Kiba's challenge. "You ready!?" Naruto holds out his hands, prepping himself for whatever he's got in mind this time.

What puts a slight hold on his plans is when Kiba starts chucking the shuriken at him, forcing Naruto into a series of aerial acrobatics in order to dodge each of the metal stars. And actually, it's rather impressive how flexible Naruto is. I didn't know that he could pull off two mid-air splits in a row.

Though when the shuriken run out and Naruto hits the ground again, Kiba is there to meet him, ramming into Naruto with his shoulder and sending him sliding backwards across the room. He speeds ahead again, punching Naruto in the face and sending him flying again.

Around the room, there are mutters and looks of disappointment. Which means that Naruto needs a pick me up again. "Come on, Naruto. You're not done yet, so quit lying around and stop letting Kiba get the better of you! If you've got a plan, do it now!"

Kakashi 's gaze burns into the back of my head. "You have a lot of faith in Naruto..." It sounds like it's as much a question as it is a statement.

And it's true. "Yes, I do." I gaze down at my best friend, who is struggling back to his feet. "Because, when that faith wavers, it only means one thing." I smile down at him, a warm feeling in my chest. "It means that there's something that he can't do on his own, and that the two of us need to fight back to back."

"I see..." I can just see Kakashi nodding in approval behind me. "That's a good way of looking at it."

With Naruto on his feet again, Kiba charges, racing across the ground on all fours, like an animal. He picks up a fair bit of speed, hitting Naruto when he's not expecting it, and sending him flying for what feels like the millionth time. Though Naruto's inhuman stamina is what lets him just keep getting right back up.

Kiba leaps into the air, coming down on Naruto from above. "Take this!" He slashes down with his claws, aiming straight for Naruto's face.

Instead of dodging, Naruto blocks the strike, before grabbing onto Kiba's arm. "Take this!" He hurls Kiba over his shoulder, throwing him a good thirty feet across the room. The only problem is that his arm is now bleeding, giving me yet another injury that I'm going to have to look at. He straightens up a bit, his grin still plastered on his face, like it's glued there. "I will be Hokage! I will never lose to you, or anyone here!"

"Dream on, kid! How can you beat me when you can't keep up with me!?" Kiba takes off again, coming down from above, and nearly shattering a bone in Naruto's arm with his next strike. Luckily, Naruto is still fast enough to dodge most of the strike, though blood continues to seep through his jacket. And Kiba is not one to let an advantage like a wounded opponent go. "You wanted me to get serious, so I got serious!" Kiba advances on Naruto's downed form. "You get it now? You were just kidding yourself, you never even had a chance!"

But Kiba is wrong, because Naruto is pulling himself back up yet again. It's actually quite inspiring to watch. _Naruto will never give up... You have to knock him right out cold if you want him to stop fighting. And even then, he won't stop fighting for his dreams, no matter what._ I can feel Naruto's will burning. _And I'll be watching over him, watching his back, every step of the way._

Blood is splattered all over the ground, but that doesn't matter to Naruto at all. "I absolutely will not lose." His grin returns in a heartbeat. "Guess you're outta luck."

A slight groan escapes me. "This is going to be a pain afterwards...healing Naruto is going to suck..." Mostly because I'm going to run through a ton of medicinal cream. There might even be enough injuries to wipe out my whole stock.

Sakura turns to me, an unusual fire in her eyes. "I'll help you! I can get bandages ready and stuff!"

Her enthusiasm surprises me, but it's not unwelcome. "Alright. Let's wait until the match is over, then we can get to work." She nods eagerly, before looking back down to the two boys on the floor.

Naruto crouches slightly, half grinning, half glaring at Kiba. "Hey! What're ya waiting for!? Ya tired!?"

"You're a scrappy little squirt, I'll give ya that!" Kiba's comments on Naruto's size are really starting to bug me. We all know that Naruto is small, and I know full well I'm smaller. But Kiba doesn't have to go pointing it out whenever he can't come up with a better comeback.

Naruto crouches lower, confidence in his eyes. "That's enough of this, it's time to unveil my new technique."

"Go for it!" Kiba takes off, sprinting towards Naruto, though taking an angled path around him this time."I gotcha now!" He comes up right behind Naruto, only for a loud fart to echo around the room.

And Kiba makes the deadly mistake of flaring his nostrils and sniffing in confusion. Then, he grabs his nose and screams in utter agony. Noises and expressions of disgust ring the room, and I slap my palm to my face. _You...have got to be kidding me._

Sakura recovers first, a bemused and slightly freaked out expression on her face. "Uh...whatever works, Naruto! You slowed him down at least!"

Naruto laughs abashedly, rubbing the back of his head for a moment. "I wish I could say I planned it. But anyway, the time has come to unleash my new technique!" He presses his fingers together in a very familiar sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" And four clones of him appear, making for a total of five Narutos. They split up and surround Kiba. "You've kicked me around pretty good so far, now it's payback time!"

The first clone punches Kiba right in the face, before the real Naruto races forward and uses him as a spring board to catapult himself into the air. Meanwhile, the clones on the ground get underneath Kiba, and kick him up into the air to meet the real Naruto. "Na-Ru-To Uzumaki Barrage!" The real Naruto smashes his legs down on Kiba's head in a manner rather reminiscent of how Sasuke ended his battle. And Kiba smashes down into the floor right on his face. And from the looks of it, he's not getting back up.

Naruto's clones disappear, leaving Naruto standing in front of a barely conscious Kiba. The proctor walks over, checks Kiba for signs of life, getting only a soft groan out of the dog boy. Then, he backs away and nods. "The winner is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yeah, Naruto! That's my teammate! Way to go!" Sakura screams her lungs out, celebrating Naruto's victory. She may have tied her match, but now, both of her teammates are going on to the finals.

Shikamaru's eyes gleam a little. "Incredible! Who would've thought he could beat Kiba!?"

I glance at him and raise an eyebrow. "Well, Kiba now owes me dinner and dessert, so..."

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, of course you thought he would beat Kiba."

"Of course." I smile at Naruto as he races for the stairs. _I knew you could do it, Naruto._

He jumps halfway up the stairs and nearly tumbles onto the upper floor. "It was nothing! Piece of cake!" He jumps up and down, more than enough energy left over from his match to celebrate his victory.

So, with Naruto's victory, I reach for my medical kit and start pulling out a few ointments and bandages, ready to do some first aid for Naruto. Plus, it would be better if no one sees the rate that Naruto heals at. They might start asking questions that he just isn't ready to answer. And that could get very uncomfortable for both of us.


	34. The Not So Gentle Fist

**Okay, so this chapter is going to dive a little into Ciara's past, mostly talking about clan politics and kinship (meaning lines of relation and descent, family tree stuff) since the issues with the Hyuga have finally come up. She is not going to cry, she is going to talk about it in the most academic fashion possible (because if she let herself get sentimental, she probably would cry, and she'd be an idiot to do that in a room full of other ninja).**

 **Warning: Flashback ahead, but it's cute, and there's a lot of hints dropped in it. Oh, and it's another long chapter too, the longest so far by over a thousand words, actually, I'm impressed with myself.**

* * *

His match won, Naruto hops over, a small jar clasped tightly in his hands. I frown a little, my eyes on the jar. "What's that?"

He holds it up and shrugs. "Hinata gave me healing ointment. She wants me to use it for my wounds."

I lean back a little and look over to where Hinata is standing. And she looks away immediately, not that it surprises me. "Alright, we can use it." I hold out my hand for it and Naruto puts it in my hand. "Alright, now off with the jacket and the headband, we need to make sure that none of your cuts get infected." If Hinata wants him to use it, then I suppose that it will just save my own ointment for someone who needs it more.

"Okay." Naruto sits down in front of me, dragging off his bloodied jack and untying his headband, revealing a bunch of cuts and bruises. But I must have a pretty dark look on my face, because Naruto laughs nervously. "Come on, Ciara, it's not that bad."

I sigh and shake my head as I grab hold of Naruto's arm. "Honestly, you have no sense of self-preservation." I dab a cloth into an antiseptic, then dab it over Naruto's cuts, wiping away blood and disinfecting the cuts at the same time. "Sakura, ointment and bandages."

As soon as I drop the cloth into my lap, Sakura hands me the ointment to smear over Naruto's arm, and unwinds a roll of bandages, already starting to wrap them around the puncture marks in Naruto's arm, courtesy of Kiba's claws. _Damn, I didn't think that his claws were this sharp._ It's like he dug knives into Naruto's skin.

While the medics down on the floor take Kiba out of the room, Sakura and I quickly go about dabbing the blood off of Naruto, then wrapping up his injuries. He's got a fair number of them, but he should be fine in a couple of days.

When the last injury has been treated and bandaged, I sigh and smile. "There. Now, just try not to get into any trouble for the next few days, and you'll recover just fine."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Naruto gets to his feet and grabs my arm, pulling me to my feet as well. "Come on, the next match is going to be announced any second."

And like clockwork, the proctor raises his voice. "Alright, we'll now pick the names for the next match." And behind him, the electronic board starts shuffling through names again. The people left are Gaara, that guy from the Sound, Lee, Neji, Chouji, Hinata, Akito, and Hiro. And hopefully, this board doesn't get the sadistic idea to pair my teammates off against each other. But with every match that goes by, that possibility becomes more and more likely.

But this is a pairing I didn't see coming.

 _Oh, Hinata... I hope you'll be alright..._

She's already down on the floor, having gone to see her fallen teammate before the medics could take him away. That leaves Neji to join his kin down on the floor for their match. And judging by the look in Neji's almost white eyes, this is not going to be a pleasant match to watch. There's anger there, deep-rooted, and like nothing I've ever seen before.

As the two stand in front of the proctor, Neji remains cold. "I never thought that you and I would have to face each other, Hinata."

"Nor I, brother." Hinata's choice of addresses surprises me a little, since I've never heard Hinata mentioning a brother. Then again, she didn't talk a whole lot while we were at the academy, so she might have more siblings than just the younger sister that I once heard about in passing. And by in passing, I mean I overheard a conversation one time while I was hanging out on the ceiling.

 _Maybe I need to stop eavesdropping on people...that's getting to be a really bad habit._

Sakura's eyes bulge. "What'd she call him?"

"B-Brother!?" Naruto looks down at the two in complete and utter shock. "Those two are brother and sister!?"

Kakashi shakes his head. "They're both descended from the Hyuga Clan, one of the most ancient and honorable of the families in the Hidden Leaf Village, not actually brother and sister."

"Okay, but they're related somehow, right?" Sakura turns to Kakashi for answers, though it doesn't surprise me that she doesn't know how the various clan systems work.

"Yes...in the way that a branch of a great tree is related to its trunk." Kakashi's eye flickers. "Technically, they're more like cousins."

"The trunk of a tree?" Naruto definitely doesn't understand it, since he didn't grow up surrounded by a clan. Then again, that might be a good thing, considering how complicated they can get.

"Yes." Lee nods calmly. "Hinata belongs to the family's main household, directly descended from the head of the clan, while Neji's family is just a side branch of the clan."

"Exactly." Kakashi agrees simply. "But, that's not the only way a clan can work, it's just one example." He glances at me, and it feels like even without the Sharingan visible, he's seeing right through me.

Sakura turns to me, hesitance in her voice. "Um...before the first exam...Sasuke asked Kabuto about you."

"He what?" I frown, since that was far from what I was expecting her to say. "And what did that guy tell you?"

Sakura gulps. "Well, he said that you...that you were the daughter of the head of the Shiryugu Clan. But..." Her voice wavers slightly. "Then he said that your clan was..."

"Dead?" My voice goes flat, though not on purpose. "He told you that my clan was slaughtered, didn't he?" She nods quietly, and I sigh. "Figures that it would get out eventually." Though it's a wonder how he knows about it in the first place. Though, he is older than us, so I guess he must have known about it when he was a kid. I take a deep breath and turn my back to the railing, staring at all of them. "Alright, then what do you want to know? My clan's structure?"

Kakashi nods. "If you wouldn't mind. It might give them a better understanding of how clans work." I frown at him, but it's not as though he's not old enough to have seen my family at its peak. He would know well what kind of people they were.

It's not the most comfortable topic, but as long as I can keep it from delving too far into my memories, and keep it technical, then I should be fine. "Alright. Luckily, it's pretty simple. We've traditionally had a main household, which consists of the clan head, their siblings, as well as all of their offspring. But, that said, if the main house starts getting crowded, the siblings of the clan head will move out into other houses on the estate, where they can have as much privacy as they want. Beyond that, most of the clan usually moves outward in the estate, with some parts dedicated to the members of certain other clans so that they can feel a little more at home."

"Other clans?" Sakura blinks, and I can just see her brain working. "You mean that other clans would live on the estate?"

"Not exactly." I shake my head. "See, members of other clans liked to marry in, so we would have large concentrations of say...Hyuga members or Nara members. My mother was half Hyuga and half Nara, and when she married my father, she moved into the main house. But as the family branched out and people started marrying in more frequently and having children, like after the village was established and clans started migrating to this region, they found that those who came from the same clan liked to live near each other, it provided a closer sense of kinship. So we had something along the lines of mini compounds within the boundaries of the estate."

"Wait, then that means you're related to Hinata!?" Naruto says that a little loudly, obviously not caring that there are two distant cousins of mine down there on the floor.

I sigh heavily. "Distantly, but yes, Hinata and Neji are cousins of mine, if you look off far enough. It's the same with Shikamaru." I glance over at him, and somehow, he doesn't seem very surprised, even though I'm sure that he's listening in on the conversation. "Anyway...anyone near my age would have automatically gotten the label of cousin in my clan, and I had no siblings of my own. My aunts and uncles were related to me by blood, with the exception of their spouses. Other than that, everyone got the label of cousin." Though there's one other thing. "But...depending on an age gap, and how close I was to them, someone who might be a distant cousin could be called aunt or uncle as a term of endearment, rather than an accurate kinship term."

Kakashi smiles behind the mask. "And that's a good lesson about the various ways in which clans are set up. That should give a little perspective on the battle we're about to see."

Sakura's eyes widen, and she looks down at the two Hyuga, still staring at each other. Though I have a feeling that Neji, at least, was listening to our conversation as well. "Still, they're family, and now they have to fight each other." She looks sad. "I feel for them...must be hard."

"Yes, but..." Lee's tone sounds ominous. "It may not be as hard as it seems. I have heard that for many generations now, there has been some bad blood between the two families."

Naruto frowns. "And why's that?"

"I have never known the specifics, but you know about the bloodline traits of the great ninja clans, like the Uchiha and the Hyuga. Special techniques and abilities unique to those families." Lee is delving into things that some clans might not want to have out in the open. Airing their dirty laundry, if you will. "The first generation of the Hyuga Clan made all sorts of rules and decrees that favor the main branch of the family. It seems some branches of the family broke these rules." That would certainly explain the abundance of Hyuga that married in, they would have been protected at home. "Anyway, it is said because of that, there has been friction between the branches of the clan."

"So...it's like this match is a family feud." Sakura's hands start to shake a little, and I can tell that she's worried. She looks to me questioningly. "Are you...worried about seeing your cousins fighting?"

I tilt my head. "I'm only worried for Hinata's safety because she was in our class. I had a lot of cousins who brought over the special abilities of the Hyuga Clan, and I have to say that I'm not too fond of what the abilities do." Mostly because they're nearly impossible to heal on short notice. That's something I learned whenever my mother's oldest brother babysat me. He had the white eyes of the Hyuga, and he would tell me all sorts of stories about what those eyes could do. And even as a kid, I soaked up knowledge like that like a sponge.

Kakashi's eyes find the field again. "Look, they're about to start." And it's about time, considering that they've been staring at each other long enough for us to have quite a rousing discussion about clan life and why it can suck.

The proctor backs away once more. "Alright, you may begin when ready."

Neji shifts first, but makes no move to attack. "Before we do this, a word of advice. Hinata, listen to me. "Withdraw now. You know you were never meant to be a ninja." His words strike her like a stab to the chest, her eyes wide with fear and pain. "You're too kind and gentle. You seek harmony and avoid conflict. You allow yourself to be easily swayed by others." Hinata tuns away at his words, but he is far from done. "Admit it, you have no confidence. You feel inferior to everyone else here. It would have been better for you to simply remain a genin. But to register for the Chunin Exams, you need a team of three people. You never even wanted to take part in these exams, but Shino and Kiba did, and you couldn't bear to let your teammates down, could you?"

Hinata bites her lip, before her soft voice grows a little stronger. "No! You're wrong! You're wrong! I wanted-" A measure of fear colors her expression."I had to find out..." Her voice weakens again, her eyes downcast. "I wanted to see if I could change..."

Rather than swaying Neji with her plea, Neji's eyes grow cold. "Hinata, you are the pampered offspring of the Hyuga's main branch." His words startle Hinata for a moment. "People can't change, no matter how hard they try. They can't run away from their true nature. A failure will always be a failure." He spits out the words callously, and it's clearly his way of playing with her mind. He's trying to use her emotions to break her into little pieces.

Next to me, Naruto growls angrily, his sense of justice not liking what he's seeing. And I'm pretty sure that I know why. So, I grab his hand, clenched tightly around the railing. "He's wrong, you know, you can definitely change who you are. You just have to really want to." Because the proof is standing right next to me. Even if no one else has noticed, Naruto is growing up, getting stronger, and can be surprisingly mature at the strangest times. Granted, those times are few and afar between, but that's not the point.

But Neji is far from done. "People are judged by their true nature. It is the way of the world. That is why we have an elite, and why there are outcasts. We can change our physical appearance, improve our skills with training and study. But ultimately, we are judged by what we cannot change. What can't be changed must be endured." His eyes grow only more malicious with each word. "We are who we are, Hinata, and we must live with it. Just as I must live with the fact that you were born into the elite of our clan, while I am from a lesser branch. I understand these things, because I see the world clearly with my Byakugan." His eyes harden further. "Despite your brave words, what you're really thinking is that you'd like to run. Run as far away from here as you can."

"No! You're wrong! You're wrong about me!" Hinata's pleas are growing desperate, and I really don't like this at all.

Now, it's not just Naruto who is holding in the urge to growl at Neji and tear his head off. I'm feeling the urge to tear him apart as well. _Do you, Neji? Can you really see the world clearly? Because from where I'm standing, it seems to me that you can't see anything at all. You're lashing out like an animal in a cage, and for what?_ I grit my teeth angrily. _This is why so many came to my family...because we would never pull shit like this._

My eyes close, because this is not something I find easy to watch.

 _*Flashback*_

 _I peek out from behind Daddy's legs, watching the new family move into their house just down the hill, next to the river. "Daddy, who are they?"_

 _Deep emerald eyes gaze down at me, shadowed slightly by locks of soft chocolate brown hair that hang over his eyes and frame his face. "Your aunt got married, remember? So her new husband is bringing his mother and his younger sister along."_

 _"Why, Daddy?" I watch the man and three ladies with wide eyes. "Won't they miss their home?"_

 _"We're their home now, sweetheart." He picks me up in his arms easily, closing the distance between us and the newcomers. "So remember to be kind and love them. You remember the rules, right?"_

 _A shy smile blooms on my face and my cheeks warm slightly. "Love your family and protect them with your life!"  
_

 _"That's right, my little princess." He bounces me slightly. "Now, let's go and welcome them."_

 _"Okay!" Meeting new people is exciting, even if I would rather have Shi-Shi and Chi-Chi come to visit. But maybe these people will be as nice as my uncles._

 _Daddy approaches the steps to the house, smiling gently at the newcomers. "I hope that I'm not disturbing you, but I thought that I would pay you a visit and welcome you to the estate."_

 _The older lady turns, her eyes white and wide. "Lord Shiryugu!" She bows deeply. "It is an honor to see you here."_

 _Daddy laughs quietly. "Ryouta, please. We are family, there is no need for such formality here." Daddy smiles at them. I love his smile, it makes me feel warm and safe and happy._

 _Meanwhile, I'm fascinated by the three pairs of white eyes in front of me. I've seen eyes like that in a bunch of people. Some of my 'cousins' have eyes just like that. And I reach out for the younger lady, arms stretched to their limit. "Pretty!"_

 _She blinks at me, her eyes flickering with uncertainty. Daddy notices, and he approaches the lady, holding me out a little so that I can grab onto her dark kimono. He chuckles slightly as my grip forces the lady to hold onto me, letting Daddy's hands fall away. "Please forgive her, she's only three, and I think I indulge her a little too much."_

 _The lady with her arms round me blinks, then turns to look at me, her eyes wide. "She's beautiful..." She gulps slightly, her voice growing quiet and shy. "What's your name?"_

 _"Cia!" I lift my hands up and fist them in her soft hair, tugging slightly. "You're pretty!"_

 _Daddy laughs again. "This is my daughter, Ciara. She's a handful some days, but she's got a healthy curiosity that only seems sated when her favorite uncles stop by."_

 _Aunty Mika smiles from the deck, her eyes flashing red for a moment as she watches us in amusement. "Oh, just give it a few years, and then she'll probably be begging those poor boys to teach her all sorts of things that will get her into trouble. Luckily for us, her chakra network still isn't active yet. The last thing we need is a little firebreather racing around the mountain. Gods know that one dragon is enough."_

 _Daddy crosses his arms, still smiling slightly. "Well, we don't know that she will be. She might take after mother, after all. The four of you did."_

 _Aunty snickers. "Yes, and you got the short end of the stick, didn't you, little brother. There's a good reason that none of us wanted to fight you over the leadership rules. Being an ANBU is a much easier job than yours."_

 _"Yes..." Daddy rubs his head, a frown on his face. "You don't have to listen to the other clan heads whining every time one of their members inadvertently insults another clan."_

 _"Not anymore, I don't." Her smile softens a little. "It's been seven years, Ryouta...you're doing a fine job now without our help. You're not sixteen anymore, and you don't need your big sister or big brothers to help you."_

 _"I know." Daddy's eyes look sad for a second. Then, he grins mischievously, glancing at the white-eyed man. "Though speaking of our siblings, the three of you should get a move on. You'll never have children at this rate. I've already got a little girl of my own, and I can't blame Miyako for not having any children yet, she's barely twenty. She and Kyoshi aren't even married yet."_

 _Aunty laughs. "Then maybe you should give our little sister a nudge. And that Uchiha had better not be getting cold feet. He'll break her heart if they don't get married soon. They may be engaged, but they still need to pick a date for the wedding. If they don't, Miyako is going to get antsy."_

 _"And we all know how disastrous that would be. Daddy shivers. "Honestly, having four siblings who can snap someone into a genjutsu in the blink of an eye is slightly terrifying."_

 _"It'd be more terrifying if we could catch you in one, wouldn't it?" She smirks at him, shaking her head. "But, I'll think about it. After all, Ciara is going to need a few playmates sooner or later."_

 _The white-eyed man nods. "And it will give her good practice for her duties later."_

 _"If she inherits my abilities..." Daddy smiles sadly. "I'm actually rather hoping she doesn't."_

 _Aunty nods slightly. "I know, Ryouta...I know."_

 _The adults finally stop talking, and I look back at the lady holding me, my head tilted slightly. "What's that?" I stare at her forehead, where a pretty green design stretches across it. I reach my hand up and run my tiny fingers across her skin, making her gasp. "Oh no! Did it hurt!? Was it my fault!?" Her reaction makes me sad, because I don;t want to make anyone cry. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!"_

 _"Shhh, shhh." She pats my back softly. "It's alright, it doesn't hurt." Tears trickle down my cheeks and I start sobbing quietly. "Lady Ciara, it doesn't hurt me...not anymore."_

 _I sniff a little more as she dries my tears with the sleeve of her kimono. "Y-you promise?"_

 _She nods gently. "I promise. It...used to, but it hasn't hurt me for a while."_

 _I don't like it, this mark that hurt my new aunty. Chi-Chi showed me a way to make pain go away forever. So I press my little lips to the middle of her forehead, right at the center of the mark. "Pain, pain, go away...leave my aunty alone."_

 _She blinks, not saying a word as her eyes widen again. So Daddy walks over and takes me from her arms. "Alright, Ciara, that's enough. Why don't we let your Aunty Mika's family unpack, and then we'll invite them home for dinner. Does that sound good?"_

 _"Yeah!" It sounds amazing. "Curry rice and soup with noodles!"_

 _Daddy chuckles softly. "There will be a lot more than that, but I'll see what I can do. And I'll tell your uncle Kyoshi to bring Shisui, okay?"_

 _I clap my hands eagerly. "Shi-Shi! Tell him to bring Chi-Chi too!"_

 _"Alright...I'll tell him to bring Itachi too..." Daddy sits me on his shoulders and starts walking back up the hill. And I turn around for a second to wave goodbye to my aunty and her new family. "See you later Aunty Mika!"_

 _And with a lazy wave of her hand, my dark-haired aunty smiles as me and Daddy disappear from sight._

 _*Flashback End*_

"That does it!" A loud voice echoes in my ear, and I blink quickly, not realizing that I'd spaced out for a bit. "Who gave you the right to tell her what she can or can't be!?" Naruto's anger radiates throughout the room. He raises his fist and stares down at Hiata, shaking me completely from my thoughts. "Go on, Hinata! Show this guy he's wrong!" When she doesn't respond, he growls and raises his voice even louder. "Hinata! You just gonna stand there and take that!? Do something! You're driving me crazy!"

Hinata's wide-eyed gaze falls, and she looks down to the floor. But it's a bit deceptive, because she's not shaking anymore, not even a twitch. And when she lifts her gaze back up, there's no weakness to be seen.

Neji remains undeterred. "If you don't forfeit the match, you know what will happen." It's a warning that promises an unpleasant end to the match, and one that makes my left hand travel back towards my medical kit, strapped back onto my belts.

But Hinata stands her ground, her hands flashing to form hand signs, ending only when her eyes pulse with chakra, activating her Byakugan. She slides into a familiar stance, one that shows that she is ready for battle. "Defend yourself, my brother."

"Very well then." Neji's own eyes pulse with power, and he slides into an identical stance. _So...it's a battle of the Gentle Fist..._ I remember watching some of my older cousins practicing it. I always thought that it looked so cool. But it wasn't until years later that I found out what kind of damage it does. Now, I can only look on with dread.

"Of course, it is the Hyuga style...that is why their poses are the same." Lee looks down on the battle with interest.

"The Hyuga style?" Sakura appears rather perplexed, though I don't blame her for not being familiar with it.

"It is the most effective type of taijutsu found in our village." Lee's muscles clench as emotion takes over his face. "I have said it before...I have on my team, the man who is probably the strongest genin to ever come out of the Hidden Leaf Village. That man, Neji Hyuga."

As the two of them leap at each other, discharging chakra from their palms, I look down in frustration. "I...hate this style of taijutsu."

Lee looks at me with a frown. "Why? It is a very effective style. There are none stronger."

"That's part of the reason why..." I stare down as the two continue to exchange blows, or rather, block each other's blows as much as possible, with Neji landing a few very discreet strikes of his own. "I have medical training, so it stands to reason that I would hate this kind of taijutsu more than any other."

Kakashi hums quietly. "That's because of what it does to the body...right?"

"Yeah..." I grit my teeth, my worry for Hinata increasing by the second. "Right now, I'm just hoping that neither of them manages to score a lethal hit." But in their dance of death, that might just be too much to hope for.

A couple of minutes in, Hinata slashes right across Neji's stomach, nearly grazing him with a powerful strike. And Sakura catches the motion too. "Did she get him!?"

"No way, she hardly touched him!" Naruto's hands clench the railing, his own concern for Hinata increasing by the second.

Lee frowns. "Even so, a glancing blow is enough. That is what makes the Hyuga Clan the most formidable of fighters."

"What does? What are you talking about?" Sakura's voice trembles, and I know that we're all worried for our classmate down there.

Lee's sensei raises his voice for us to hear. "Their taijutsu is a unique one that's been passed down for generations. It's not the kind of taijutsu Lee and I employ. We tend to concentrate on inflicting external damage. We use crushing blows to raise contusions and break limbs, pouncing our enemy. The Hyuga way is to attack their opponent's internal organs and the chakra network through which the chakra flows. Their way is more...subtle. Perhaps not as thrilling to watch, but it gradually takes effect with devastating results."

I clench my hands, one of which is still gripping onto Naruto's. "Healing external injuries...or even broken bones is one thing. But dealing with damage to the inside of the body, to the organs and chakra network...that's playing with fire and hoping for a miracle."

Kakashi nods. "Right. You see, you can't build up your internal organs, no matter how hard you train. Even the toughest ninja is vulnerable to this kind of attack. And there is only so much that medics can do if they lack experience, or if they can't move quickly enough."

My fingers twitch as the two Hyuga continue to battle it out on the floor, dancing around each other and shooting off chakra in all directions. "And that's why I hate the Gentle Fist so much..."

But so far, the battle would appear relatively even, and that seems to be all that Naruto cares about. "Hinata! Way to go!"

"They...attack the chakra network?" Sakura's eyes widen in awe with every movement. "These people...are amazing."

Naruto quiets his cheering and turns to Sakura. "Yeah, you can say that again." And just when I think that Naruto can't put his foot in his mouth, I'm proven wrong. "So what is the chakra network, anyway?"

I groan and bang my head against the railing. "You have got to be kidding me..."

Sakura sighs, sharing my irritation. "Don't you know anything?"

"Here, I will explain it." Thankfully, Lee takes over, saving me and Sakura from trying to pound the information into Naruto's brain. "It is the complex system of circulatory canals that distribute chakra throughout the body, similar to a person's vascular system, the veins and arteries that carry blood."

Naruto nods. "I get it, only these veins carry chakra, not blood."

"Ah...basically." Lee seems to be catching on to the idea that it's better to just let Naruto put things together in a way he'll understand. "Furthermore, the chakra network is so closely interwoven with all the most vital internal organs that they are virtually one and the same. Therefore, when the network is attacked, these organs suffer damage as well."

Naruto grins eagerly. "Wow, Lee, how'd you ever get to be so smart?"

"Idiot! How'd you ever get to be a genin!?" Sakura decks Naruto right on the head, a complete turnaround from when she was cheering for him earlier. Then, she turns to Kakashi. "But sensei, how do they know where to strike their opponent? I mean, the chakra network is invisible to the eye, right? So how do they know exactly where to land their blows?"

Kakashi's eyes flicker down towards Neji. "You're forgetting their Byakugan...there are few things invisible to those eyes. What's more, when they strike a blow, it's a little different from a normal attack. A small, but intense burst of their own chakra is released from their hand. It drills into the opponent's body, directly attacking his chakra network."

And just like that the trading of blows comes to an end, and both Neji and Hinata go in for a final blow, both of them hitting their opponent in the chest. Naruto grins and cheers. "Yeah, Hinata! Get him!"

It's like everything happens in slow motion, and we all just wait for the results of that strike. And it's Hinata who ends up coughing up blood. And Neji just looks a little smug. "That's it? That's all there is to the main branch's power?"

"What's going on!?" Naruto leans over the railing, trying to get a better look at the match. "I mean, I saw Hinata hit Neji perfectly!" Though that would seem to be contradicted by the blood coming out of her mouth, instead of his.

Not that Hinata is giving up no. She tosses Neji's hand away, ignoring whatever damage he's done to her insides, and aims another strike right at his chest. But instead of it connecting, he dodges it, slaps it to the side, and then takes hold of it, driving a two-fingered strike into her arm. Then, he pulls back her sleeve, revealing many small red dots on her arm.

Hinata's eyes find the dots, fear blossoming within those pale orbs. "Y-you mean...all this t-time, you-"

"That's right. I could see your chakra points the whole time." The venom in Neji's voice is becoming more potent by the minute, reminding me somewhat of a hissing cobra after you've stepped on its tail.

Naruto's blue eyes widen. "Huh? What is he talking about?"

"On the chakra network, there are three hundred and sixteen energy centers, or chakra points, and each are only about the size of the head of a pin. Hitting one directly can affect chakra flow, either halting it or increasing it, depending on how the attacker strikes the chakra points." Kakashi sure knows a lot about this, which probably means that I should be taking notes on it. "Theoretically, it allows a ninja to gain complete control over an opponent's chakra flow. But these chakra points...they're undetectable, even to my Sharingan eye."

Neji slams yet another strike into Hinata's chest, this one even more powerful than before, and it sends her flying several meters.

Neji takes a few steps towards her, standing far above her. "Look, Hinata, I'm completely out of your league, and that won't change. This is what separates the elites from the failures. You may not like it, but it's a fact. From the instant you said you wouldn't run anymore, your fate was sealed. You were destined for failure. And now, you're consumed with hopelessness." He take a few more steps towards her. "This is your last warning, Hinata. Forfeit this match.

Blood drips from Hinata's mouth as she rolls over onto her knees, struggling to get to her feet. "I...I...I never...go back...on my word." She pulls herself to her feet, breathing hard and blood streaming from her lips. "Because that too is my nindo, my ninja way."

My eyes widen, and Naruto's hand clenches underneath mine. He may be an idiot sometimes, but he knows those words very well. They're his. His vow on Haku and Zabuza's graves to never run away from a battle ever again. She looks up at Naruto, her eyes full of determination that I've never seen from the shyest member of our class.

Naruto trembles a little. "I had no idea...that Hinata's as tough as she is."

"She...is a lot like you..." Lee smiles as he points out the connection, even though he should be in his teammate's corner instead.

"You know...she is always watching you." Sakura points out something else that should be obvious, and yet, isn't. Then again, Naruto is hardly the most observant of people, so it stands to reason that he wouldn't notice when the shyest girl in class stares at him.

Hinata activates her Byakugan once more, ready to start this fight right back up again. But an instant after she does so, she coughs up blood and grabs at her heart. This is looking really serious. There's no telling how much damage there could be inside her body because it just doesn't show the way external damage does.

Sakura gasps slightly. "Doesn't it seem like the difference in strength makes it unfair? He's just way too strong, it's a mismatch! Seriously..."

Naruto clenches his fists, then takes a deep breath. "Go Hinata! you can do it!"

And it's his words that put strength back into Hinata's eyes and back into her strikes. She attacks Neji fearlessly, even though her attacks are completely ineffective. Even without chakra, she's not landing a single hit, Neji is blocking every one of them. Although, she's blocking plenty of Neji's strikes as well, so I suppose that it isn't quite as imbalanced as it could be. Still...there's no way that Hinata is going to win this match. As much as I would like her to, it's just not going to happen.

But, she doesn't give up, she races after Neji over and over, trying to knock him off balance. Though after another minute f their dance, Neji smacks her in the chin, tossing her off balance slightly and making her slide back several feet. The strike makes her cough, and with each exhalation, more blood comes up. So far, she hasn't lost enough for it to be fatal, but I'm worried about how much internal bleeding she's suffering from.

She doesn't stop, though, she races towards Neji once more, only to be struck square in the chest, and blood forced out of her mouth in a torrent. She collapses to the ground, falling flat on her face.

Neji looks down at her with contempt. "You just don't get it, do you? Your strikes were ineffective from the very start. You're finished." He turns away from her, leaving her lying still on the ground.

"It's too bad, but after that blow to the heart, Hinata is done." That comment might mean more if it wasn't coming from Neji's sensei.

Naruto takes his hands from the railing, after nearly crushing the jar of ointment. And I can see the anger in his eyes as the proctor approaches Hinata. "Since she's no longer able to continue this match-"

"No!" Naruto's voice rings out loud and clear across the room. "Don't stop this match!"

"Naruto! What on earth are you doing? Hinata's had it! You can see she's unconscious, can't you?" Sakura glares at him, obviously not understanding what he's trying to do at all. And while I can admire him for his faith in Hinata, I think that she should just stay down, for the sake of her health.

Of course, she admires Naruto, so her staying down was never really an option. And Naruto smiles as Hinata struggles to her feet once more. Her whole body is trembling, and it's actually rather impressive that she isn't screaming out in pain. _She must be really determined to get some acknowledgement for her skills..._

"What do you think you're doing?" Neji looks like he's trying to frown, but it's marred by an expression of incredulity. "If you continue to fight, you're going to die." _Only if you kill her, you asshole..._

Hinata moves forward while her cousin readies himself to attack. "I'm far from finished."

"Give up the tough guy act, I can tell you're barely standing." I hate to admit that Neji has a point, but there's also the fact that human determination and willpower can do a lot of things that shouldn't be possible. Naruto himself is proof of that, and it seems to be rubbing off on Hinata. "You've been carrying a very heavy burden, having been born the the main branch of the Hyuga Clan. And you've cursed and blamed yourself for being weak. But look, people can't change the way they are. That's just how it is. Just accept defeat and you won't have to suffer anymore."

"No, you've got it wrong, brother. You've got it backwards." And I agree with her, because Neji seems to be a fatalistic idiot in my eyes. "You see, I can tell...that you're the one...you're suffering much more than I. You're the one who's all torn up abut the fate of the main and side branches of the Hyuga Clan."

Those words seem to have broken a dam inside of Neji, and despite it being obvious that his cousin can no longer fight, he charges at her, intending to strike the final blow. The proctor holds up his hand in protest. "Neji, no! The match is over!"

But he doesn't listen, forcing the proctor to spring into action, sprinting towards the two Hyuga in an effort to save Hinata's life. But he's not alone. Kakashi flickers down onto the floor, grabbing hold of Neji's outstretched arm. The proctor holds a finger to Neji's forehead, while Kurenai holds onto Neji's other arm, and his own sensei wraps his arm around Neji's neck.

His sensei is far from pleased. "Neji, get ahold of yourself. You promised me that you wouldn't let this whole head family thing get you riled up!"

Neji grits his teeth, his chakra still spiked. "Why are you and the other jounin butting in? The head family gets special treatment, huh?"

Hinata coughs again, falling to her knees as more blood pours out of her mouth. Her sensei catches her, and Naruto grabs my hand as we jump over the railing and sprint towards her, along with Sakura and Lee. Naruto's voice gets a little shrill. "Hinata!" He slips out of my grip as we get close. "Hinata! You okay!?" He slides into a kneeling position next to her, so I slow down to give them a moment.

"N-Naruto?" Her breath comes out unevenly as her eyes travel over Naruto's face. "I...just...I...do you..." Her voice fades, her eyes closing from exhaustion.

I walk over and nudge Naruto aside. "Come on, she needs medical attention." He nods silently, moving over to let me sit next to her.

"Hey you, loser!" Obviously, Neji is talking to Naruto, though unlike Sasuke calling him that almost playfully, this time, it's full of malice. "I have two pieces of advice for you. First of all, if you intend to call yourself a shinobi, stop that stupid cheering of yours it's disgraceful. And second, once a failure, always a failure, you can't change that."

I grit my teeth and ignore the jabs at Naruto, passing my hands over Hinata's chest in an effort to at least make a diagnosis and prognosis before I start doing any healing. Though it certainly doesn't help to have Naruto growling and running to tear Neji a new one. Thankfully, we have Lee to run interference.

Sakura looks down at me, her eyes wide with concern. "Is she...how is she?"

Hinata decides to answer that question for me by coughing up more blood. Kurenai panics, reaching for her sweater and pulling the zipper down. But before she can move to help Hinata, I grab her arms. "Stop, I need you to give me some room."

"But-" She looks at me with confusion written all over her face.

"No buts, now back away!" Though, instead of waiting and watching to make sure that she gives me the space I need, I fling Hinata's jacket open and press my ear to her chest. _She's stopped breathing! And her heart is barely beating! She's gone into cardiac arrest!_

 _No, this is one of the things you've made sure to study. You've learned how to do CPR, so get to it!_ Chakra fills my hands, and I press down on Hinata's chest, pumping her full of chakra in an effort to restart her heart. I know that I've got about four minute, maybe six to get her heart pumping blood again, otherwise she really will die.

That said, I'm still going to need help. "Get me a medical team in here, now! We've got a code blue, patient is in cardiac arrest!" I need to be professional about this, but I can't forget that I'm a ninja, and I can do some things that other medics can't.

After about five pumps to her chest, I draw my hands back and weave a few hand signs. I concentrate chakra into my mouth, hoping that I don't misjudge the chakra quantity and kill her with it. **_Wind Style: Air Cushion!_** I tilt Hinata's head back and breathe right down into her mouth, my breath infused with chakra, as though for one of my wind style ninjutsu. But, I don't blow nearly the whole jutsu in, just enough to fill her lungs. Then, I press down on her rib cage, praying that I don;t break her ribs in the process, and pump down, shockwaves of chakra filling the room with every pump.

Once the air is out of her lungs, I repeat the process, over and over, a total of six times. Footsteps hurry towards us just as Hinata starts breathing again. And with her breathing again, I release the rest of the jutsu into the air and focus my energy into repairing the damaged muscle tissue of her heart. The medical team can do the rest, but her heart is what needs saving right now.

"We're here!" The medics run up with a stretcher and two of them kneel next to me. I keep my hands where they are and look up at the medical team. She's been in cardiac arrest once, but her heart is badly damaged, and she could go back in at any moment. She need emergency treatment immediately, and then a transfer to the ICU."

"Right away, Miss." I recognize one of the medics as one of the interns who attended to me when I was little, who I learned a little rudimentary medical ninjutsu from, before running off to study on my own. The other two the medics carefully extract her from under my hands, placing her on the stretcher before they start walking away with her. The third medic bows to me. "Thank you for your assistance, Lady Shiryugu. We will take it from here." Then, he turns tail and jogs after the two other medical staff.

"Hinata..." Naruto watches them disappear with her, his eyes full of pain for our old classmate. Then, he turns around, kneeling so that he can touch a puddle of Hinata's blood. He swipes his fingers through it, then rises to face Neji. "I vow to win."

I watch as determination flickers through Naruto's eyes, then I sigh and pull on his arm. "Let's go. The faster we get to the next match, the faster we get to the next round. You can have him in the finals.""Yeah..." Naruto lets me pull him away as a cleaner comes in to mop Hinata's blood off the floor.

 _This is why I hate that damn Gentle Fist..._


	35. The Ultimate Defense Challenged

**Okay, so I don't have a set updating schedule, I just update whenever I have a chapter polished up (which is between my other stories and homework). I mean, it takes a little longer on my end since I'm my own beta-reader, but I like correcting my own work, since I usually catch the vast majority of the mistakes anyway (of which there are few to begin with, plus it's good practice for my essays and research papers). And while nice reviews make me want to update, less nice ones make me lose all motivation.**

 **Thank you rycmika for the confidence boost. But...I'm still going to air my own grievances.**

 **Anyway, I hope that you guys liked the glimpse into Ciara's childhood last chapter. I just took advantage of there being the Hyuga match-up to insert a little something there. Though it seems that someone didn't like that last chapter, despite how much extra material there was in it. Funny how some people complain about too much canon stuff (in a story that I've made extremely clear takes place within the established story) in the chapters where there's more extra stuff than canon. One of these days, I'm going to try and figure out how that works. But hey, if anyone wants to miss the flashbacks, dreams, little details, characterization, and development/expression of character relationships, then I won't stop you.**

 **Although...considering that this chapter is between Lee and Gaara...I was thinking of doing something interesting with the ending (since I'm the kind of person who feels the need to set everything up beforehand, before getting to the main point, I think it's the completionist gamer in me). After all, I got good reactions the last time Gaara and Ciara were within fifteen feet of each other.**

 **I just can't seem to please everyone... *sighs dramatically and sarcastically* Oh whatever shall I do...?**

 **Write, I shall write (and maybe finally get to work on that Art paper that's due obscenely soon).**

* * *

Naruto and I hang out on the far end of the upper floor, closest to the stairs, just in case I need to go down after the next match and heal someone. But my nerves are starting to fray. Right now, the only people left are Lee, Gaara, Chouji, that Sound Village guy, and my two teammates. And I'm hoping with all of my heart and Akito and Hiro won't have to fight each other. I would rather see all of us go to the finals, than have our team split up over one match.

But while the two of us watch the cleaner finish up down on the floor, a voice drifts over from our left. "Hey you two!" Naruto and I glance over at Kankuro, who seems to have decided to switch sides of the viewing deck for some reason. "How come you two are all by yourselves? Why aren't ya hangin' with your buddies?"

"Huh?" Naruto frowns. "What's it to you?" He huffs irritably and turns his nose up and away from Kankuro.

Kankuro looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "What's up with him?"

"He's probably still mad about what you tried to do to Konohamaru." At least, that's my best guess. "Try not to upset him."

Kankuro nods, shrugging a little. "So, tell me something about this guy, Neji. I get the feeling we didn't see the full extent of his powers in the last fight, did we? So what's his story?"

I narrow my eyes at Kankuro. _Well, isn't he curious... He must be fishing for information before the final round. It's a good idea...but that doesn't mean that he'll get what he wants._

I open my mouth to tell him to get lost, but Naruto's voice beats me to it. "I'm gonna pulverize him, that's his story!" He punches his fist into the air, obviously imagining exactly how hard he's going to hit Neji during the finals. And I resist the urge to bang my head against the wall. Or his.

"Okay...but that's not quite what I meant." He glances at me instead. "What about you?"

I glance around Naruto and shake my head. "Nice try, but not happening."

Kankuro's mouth twitches slightly. "You know...you two seem nice. I like you."

"Oh yeah...?" Naruto quickly cools off, turning his head to look at Kankuro. "Well don't take this the wrong way, but I don't like you!"

Kankuro's strained smile stretches a bit, and his eye twitches a couple of times. _Serves you right for trying to get close to Naruto when he's like this..._ Honestly, it's a miracle he got even this close. Usually, I'm the only one who can safely get within ten feet of Naruto when he's this pissed off.

A cough comes from the proctor down on the floor, and it looks like the cleaner has finished mopping up the mess. "Now, then, we'll continue the competition." The board whirs again, picking out the next two competitors.

And Gaara must have some kind of sixth sense, because before the board even finishes choosing, he appears down on the floor in the middle of a miniature sandstorm. But his sixth sense is eerily accurate, because the next match is him against Lee. And from the looks and sounds of it, Lee is quite happy to finally be getting his match.

Though that only leaves Chouji and that Sound ninja as opponents... _I guess I know who will be fighting my teammates...I'm just glad that it's not Gaara._ There's so much about him that gives me the creeps. Then again, there's also something about him that makes me feel...almost sad.

Lee jumps down from the balcony, looking quite eager to finally get his match started. Though I'm not sure if I should be glad that it's not my teammates who have to go up against Gaara, or if I should be worried that Lee has to. Maybe it would just have been better for the Sand and Sound to take each other out instead.

He gets to his feet and holds up his hand in a preparation to fight. "I knew that sooner or later we would have to meet, and I'm glad it is sooner." Lee's enthusiasm is met with nothing more than Gaara's blank stare.

"I don't know what kind of moves that guy with the dumb haircut has got, but he'll never take Gaara down. Not in this lifetime." Kankuro looks down at Lee like he already knows how this match is going to end. Obviously, he's greatly underestimating our village's ninja. That could be a fatal mistake.

And Naruto knows it. "Wrong." He sounds almost bored. "Lee's stronger than you think. You have no idea."

The cork from Gaara's big gourd goes flying at Lee, only for the spandex boy to catch it easily. "Why are you in such a hurry?" He drops the cork to the ground, not at all fazed by the sudden aggression.

"Alright, then." The proctor raises his hand for attention. "If you are both ready, begin." He jumps back, giving the two room to begin their fight.

Lee makes the first move, sprinting at Gaara and spinning quickly to kick at his head. "Leaf Hurricane!"

Now, the angle of the kick was great, it would have risked giving Gaara a concussion. If it had connected. But a wall of sand springs up between the two without so much as a flicker of movement from Gaara. It's almost like an automatic reflex, or like the sand has a mind of its own. Then it spits itself all over the place, chasing Lee off in a hurry. Then, it retreats back into the gourd on Gaara's back.

I push down the urge to shiver a bit. _That's what he tried to grab me with..._ Back when we first met up with the Sand team in the tower, Gaara's sand was tugging on my ankles. Now, I know where it came from, though it still doesn't explain why he was doing it. _Unless..._ I bring my hand to rest on my stomach, feeling a little nervous. _No...he doesn't know, does he?_

But, there's no time to ponder the thought, as my attention is captured by Lee's swift movements as he twirls around Gaara, punching and kicking at him, trying to outrun the sand and land a blow. He even resorts to using a kunai to cut through the sand when it starts to rear up in ochre waves. It chases Lee around, protecting Gaara without even a twitch from the redhead.

"That sand...he's using it as a shield." Naruto's eyes are wide as he watches the chase.

"He's not doing it." Kankuro watches the match with a slight smirk. "The sand is protecting him of its own accord. It's almost like a living thing, it'll come to Gaara's defense without his doing anything. That's why Gaara's never been injured, no one can get at him. No one's ever even been able to touch him." I've never heard of sand that was sentient before, and honestly, it's more than a little creepy.

As my eyes find the floor once more, I can feel the bloodlust radiating off of Gaara. It's so strong that it's almost tangible. And that certainly doesn't help Lee when he gets grabbed by the sand and thrown against the wall. He's been forced on the defensive, but is trying to go on the offensive, despite the fact that his opponent's defensive techniques seem to have no visible weakness.

Though I will give Lee one thing, he's definitely quick on his feet. Even on the defensive, he's able to stay out of range of the sand for the most part. Well, until it slips under his feet and he takes a dive. The sand goes crashing down on top of him, but it leaves him just enough room to slide out of there and flip into the air, all in a split-second.

Lee lands on top of the statue at the far end of the room, and as he looks out into the room, his sensei holds out his hand. "Alright Lee, take em off!"

Lee salutes uncertainly. "Uh, but Gai-Sensei, you said that was only as a last resort, when the lives of very important people were at stake."

"That's right, I did!" Gai grins at his student. "But this is an exception!"

"Really?" Lee relaxes considerably, before shaking with what appears to be excitement and joy. "Really!?" And with a nod from his sensei, he sits himself down and removes his leg warmers, revealing weights attached to his legs.

Naruto's face glows with admiration. "Totally cool!"

"Heh, totally dumb." Kankuro scoffs behind me.

But me, I'm staring at those weights with great suspicion. _Exactly what kind of weights are those for those two to believe that it will make such a difference in the match?_ They don't look particularly special. In fact, they look like any other basic leg weights for endurance and strength training.

Lee holds them out to the sides, sighing in relief. "Ah! That is better, now I will be able to move freely!" He drops the weights, and it feels like it takes forever for them to hit the floor.

Then comes the deafening boom of the weights crashing to the floor like a couple of steel beams. They shatter the stone platform in front of the statue and scatter the pieces. And Gei just looks so proud of his student. "Alright! Now go!"

"Yes sir!" Lee grins eagerly, howling happily to the sky, before he disappears in the blink of an eye, seemingly reappearing behind Gaara. And if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have sworn that it was a body flicker. But no, it was just straight up speed.

He punches right through Gaara's sand shield, the defensive structure unable to keep up with his sheer speed. And every strike of his hands and feet, while not getting quite to Gaara, only proves that Gaara's defense is not as incredible as it seems. Not only that, but Gaara keeps twisting around, trying and failing to keep his eyes on Lee.

Lee literally runs circles around Gaara, before leaping into the air and coming back down on that mop of red hair. He lands the blow right to his head. Naruto gapes at the sight. "Whoa, that's scary! And I thought he was quick on his feet before! He's been that fast all this time!?"

I smile slightly at the sight below us. "I guess...this just proves that it's a bad idea to underestimate our village's genin. Wouldn't you agree?" I turn to Naruto with a grin, and he returns it full force.

"Yes, Lee! Let the power of youth explode!" On the other hand, maybe we should make sure not to overestimate our village's jounin. Because they seem to be more than a little weird.

"Right!" Lee charges back in as red hair falls into Gaara's face.. The green blur races around in circles, striking at every random angle that he can get, throwing Gaara completely off his earlier rhythm. And then, he lands a second hit to Gaara, a punch straight to the left cheek. And with it, he sends Gaara flying.

When Gaara gets back up, shivers race up and down my spine. He's breathing hard, and it's almost guttural, the way the sounds come out of his mouth. And the sand pours out of the gourd on his back like a waterfall. There's something wrong, though, because that bloodthirsty feeling I felt coming from him earlier is only getting stronger.

"Uh-oh." Gaara's teammate seems to be thinking along the same lines.

Naruto, on the other hand, isn't. "Uh-oh is right! Your friend with the eye makeup is getting the stuffing beaten outta him!"

"That isn't what I was talking about, kid." Kankuro glances at me. "But...you're feeling it, aren't ya?"

Naruto turns his head to me, his face showing only confusion. "Feeling what? Whats's he talking about?"

"He...he's out for blood." I grip the railing tightly, because I refuse to let my fear get the better of me. "It's like his bloodlust has a physical form." And not only that, but his skin looks like it's turning to sand.

And it is, it actually is turning to sand. And that layer of sand is falling right off his face, revealing the bloodthirsty expression underneath. His eyes are bloodshot, and there's a hungry look in them, not to mention the grotesque smile that's just waiting to be dripping blood.

"What the heck!?" Naruto rubs his eyes as though not believing what he's seeing. "What's going on with this guy!? His face is falling off!" But as the shell of sand reforms, Naruto frowns. "I don't get it. Is he made of sand, or what? All those blows and kicks Lee hit him with ...did any of them get through?"

"No." Kankuro shakes his head. "It's like he's wearing a suit of armor."

"A what!?" Naruto turns away from the match, looking for answers from the other Sand ninja.

Kankuro looks down to the battlefield. "Ordinarily, those shifting clouds of sand are enough to shield him. But in the event the shield is penetrated, Gaara can also wear the sand like armor as a last line of defense." And I do have to wonder how confident Kankuro is in his teammate's skills to reveal this kind of information to two people moving on to the finals.

"This guy's too much!" Naruto's eyes widen. "He's got armor now!? Does he have any weak spots?" I have to wonder about that armor, though, because it seems a little too good to be true. And when things are too good to be true, they usually are.

Lee seems to be trying to decide what to do, but after a signal from his teacher, he starts to unravel the bandages around his hands. I narrow my eyes. _Alright...what's he up to now? First, he took off the weights to give himself freedom of movement. But there's no way he's got more weights on his arms, there's no room for them. So...a technique, maybe? Just how much is he holding back right now?_

Moving forward, Lee starts racing around in a circle around Gaara, kicking up so much dust that it almost looks like he's trying to create a tornado. He's nearly too fast to be seen. I can just barely keep track of him as my eyes dart back and forth, and that's just because I'm the type to favor speed as well. It's easier to see something if the basics of it lie within your skill set.

Then, the running stops, and he appears in the center of the whirlwind, driving his foot straight up into Gaara's chin, reminiscent of what Sasuke did in his match. _So that's where he got it from..._ But Gaara doesn't go very high, probably because he's got that gourd, plus the sand armor weighing him down. So Lee kicks him again, and again, driving him higher into the air with every strike. Though from the looks of it, Lee is putting a lot of strain on his body, and I can just see the pain in his expression as he gets Gaara out of range of the sand.

Then, he wraps Gaara up in the bandages, grabbing hold of the Sand ninja once he is good and tied up. He uses the momentum he's already built up to set the both of them spinning, him taking a higher position than Gaara as the two of them plummet towards the ground. _Is he planning on slamming Gaara headfirst into the ground!?_ That would definitely end the match, but the kind of pressure that would put on the body, plus the risk of breaking bones...that's not a safe technique to use.

Then, the two of them smash into the ground, and dust and sand go flying, obscuring most of the battlefield. Then, Lee leaps out of the cloud of debris and watches as the dust begins to settle. But, in the crater is not Gaara. It may look like Gaara, but I know for certain that it's not him. _I can't...feel anything from that one._ But I can definitely still feel his bloodlust coming from somewhere.

"Amazing...he did it." Naruto looks on in awe, totally unaware of the bigger problem.

Then, the figure in the crater starts to crumble, revealing nothing but an empty shell made of sand. And as my eyes search the battlefield, I discover the source of the bloodlust. A pile of sand, not far from the crater. Rising out of it is a sinister figure, radiating powerful waves of bloodlust. Gaara, looking rather the worse for wear after all of the fighting.

And the worst part has to be the laughing, I've never heard such a bone-chilling laugh.

Lee, however, is in even worse shape than Gaara. Obviously, that move was a trump card, a last resort. But Gaara is still standing, and still strong enough to smash a wave of sand into Lee, knocking him back several feet. Lee looks like he can barely move, let alone defend himself. Especially from the huge wave of sand now towering above him.

He's swept away by the mass of sand and hurled against a wall. And despite his efforts to block the next attack, there is a crater left in the wall behind him. And it's all he can do to get out of the way of the next strike. It hurts to watch this match, because right now, it's so incredibly one-sided. Not to mention the fact that I don't like watching people feel pain.

Now, he's up and running, despite his obvious injuries. Even Kankuro looks worried for Lee. "He should quit while he can. It was just bad luck that he got Gaara as an opponent."

Naruto grits his teeth and clenches the railing. "Come on, Bushy Brow."

"Bushy Brow, huh...?" I smile faintly and elbow Naruto. "You're going to have to tell me how that nickname happened when this is all over."

"Yeah..." He nods his head, but he looks very distracted.

"I pity the kid." Kankuro's voice draws both my attention and Naruto's. "Gaara will just toy with him until he begs for mercy."

"Well, then..." It seems that Gai was eavesdropping on us from down the balcony. "Gaara's in for a long match, because that will never happen." That sounds more than a little strange. "Lee doesn't know how to give up." And judging by the beating he's still taking without raising his hand for a forfeit, there is clearly some merit to those words. Because no matter what he gets hit with, he just keeps getting back up. He's as tenacious as Naruto.

Naruto's hands start to tremble, so I lace my fingers through his and grip tightly to him. There's not much that will truly reassure Naruto, but maybe I can do something for him like this. On the other hand, Lee's smile might be the prelude to something unexpected.

And it is, it most certainly is. Because when Gaara's sand attacks again, Lee disappears, proving that his earlier speed is not gone. Naruto's eyes widen, and his fingers tighten their grip on mine. We watch as Lee dodges Gaara's sand over and over with a smile on his face. There's something going on that we don't know about, and whatever it is, Lee seems to believe that it will help him win.

But my instincts are screaming at me that whatever it is...it's a very bad idea.

My intincts are right, because the pressure around Lee increases exponentially. There's chakra flowing all around him, and it's almost as potent as what I've felt on those rare occasions that Suzaku has lent me access to a tiny amount of his own vast power.

As the chakra continues to intensify, Lee's skin turns red and his blood vessels bulge under that crimson skin. He almost looks like he's been badly sunburnt. But I know better, because there's no sunlight here, and no one burns that quickly. And his bowl-cut black hair stands straight up because of the updraft of his chakra.

Naruto gasps. "He's turning red!"

"What's it mean!?" Kankuro's shock nearly comes to a breaking point. "What's happening!?"

"He's...forcing out so much chakra..." I can't describe it any other way. "But...if he does that...he's going to tear his body apart!" And judging by the speed he exhibits when he tears up the floor and starts glowing green, my assessment is right. There's no way that a thirteen year-old's body can hold up for long under this kind of pressure.

Then, the two of them disappear, and Naruto grips my hand even tighter. "Where'd they go!?"

I look straight up, since that's where Lee decided to put Gaara last time. "Up."

And Gaara is up there, alone. That is, until Lee appears right above him, right between his sand and what its meant to protect. He kicks Gaara around with a force and speed I've never seen before. This is truly impressive taijutsu, and only makes me realize that my own is terribly childish in comparison. Then again, judging by how much damage his body appears to be taking as he comes down on Gaara, I'm actually okay with not having his high taijutsu skills, because I would never want to do something like that to my body.

Lee punches Gaara hard, driving him back towards the ground, before grabbing the cloth around his waist and pulling the Sand ninja back up to meet a mighty punch and kick combination that drives Gaara right down into the ground. And the shockwave and dust that come off the impact are tremendous, obscuring almost everything.

Everything except Gaara just barely saving himself with a cushion of sand made of his gourd, and Lee tumbling out of whatever technique he was using and rolling across the floor. Both boys are lying on their backs, but as Lee gets up, Gaara seems unwilling to lose. He raises a hand, and the sand chases after Lee, who can barely move, let alone dodge.

The sand wraps itself around Lee's left arm and leg, and the sand compresses itself, forcing crushing pressure onto the already damaged and fragile limbs. And just to add insult to injury, even with Lee down and not able to move anymore, Gaara forces his sand to chase the taijutsu expert, obviously planning to crush Lee's whole body into dust.

But before the attack can go through, Gai leaps down to the field and beats away the sand with one hand. Gaara, on the other hand, seemingly at seeing Gai, holds his head in his hands. "But why? He failed. Why save him?"

"Because he's...he's my student. And also because he is precious to me." There is only hesitation in his words, because it would seem that there are truly no words to describe what he feels for his student. _I wonder...if all good teachers feel this way for their students..._

Gaara starts walking away, his gourd reforming from the sand on the ruined floor. His voice is flat as he heads back towards his team. "I quit."

The proctor raises his hand slowly. "The winner is-"

But he stops, because what shocks the whole room is Lee stumbling to his feet. _No way...how can he still be-_ Then, I get a good look at his eyes. _No...he's not even conscious right now. How can he possibly still be standing if he's not even conscious anymore?_ And his teacher is weeping at the sight, though whether he is sad or proud, I cannot say.

Since Gai's interference officially ended the match, and the proctor has basically called it, I find myself once again hurtling towards the floor. My instincts are already driving me to tend to the wounded. And in this case, that is very clearly Lee. I learned quickly from Hinata's match that the medics take a few minutes to get here, which means that by helping a severely injured fighter, I'm increasing their odds dramatically. And it looks like Lee is going to need exactly that, because while I don't know how much pressure that sand was putting on him, I do know that if it's bad enough to have blood gushing from two of his limbs, then he at least needs the bleeding stopped.

Though I fear that the damage is far worse than that.

Stubbornly staying on his feet, even though he's clearly unconscious, Lee's heartfelt determination is admirable, to say the least. Despite that, I put my hand on his good shoulder, easing him out of his teacher's grips, and press down on it until he begins to fall towards the floor. Catching him carefully, I lower him to the ground as quickly as I safely can, and straighten him out so that I can get a better look at him.

The proctor raises his hand once more. "The winner...is Gaara."

Gaara's light blue eyes narrow at Lee, as though unsatisfied that his opponent is still alive. Then, they find me, and I return his gaze without any fear. After this match, any and all fear I had of his bloodlust is gone. Now, I'm only angry. His sand twitches slightly, and I have a feeling that I know what it is that he wants.

I keep my voice to a low growl. "If your sand slithers over here...I will put you in the ground, no matter what the rules say."

Surprisingly, the sand stops twitching, and he turns his back on me, returning to the upper level to stand with his team. And with him finally off the battlefield, I can turn my full attention to his opponent, the one who fought so bravely against such terrible odds. He has definitely proven his strength today, though it wasn't without cost.

It takes only a few moments of examination to know that what I'm dealing with is far beyond my skill level. Dealing with cuts and bruises is easy, and even performing a restoration of the heart beat is simple enough, since it mostly involves physical forces, rather than chakra. But for a condition like this, a professional surgeon is needed. And that is something I most certainly am not.

I pass my hands over his left arm and leg, before I start noting my findings. _The bones of his forearm, the radius and ulna are shattered, along with the tibia and fibula in the leg._ I move my hands higher. _The tendons, ligaments, as well as the larger muscles are all suffering from tears. His hamstrings in particular have suffered a lot of damage. And the calf muscles of his left leg are completely shot._ My hands roam higher, brushing over his chest. The muscles tears continue throughout his body, and there are bits of shattered bone spread through him like shrapnel. _At least most of his organs are functioning sufficiently. There's a lot of damage, but at least he won't go into cardiac arrest like Hinata._

Gai approaches me, then crouches down over Lee. "Is he...going to be alright?"

I bite my lip. right now, I'm being left with a daunting choice. I can either lie and reassure Lee's teacher, or I can tell the truth and wind up causing him a lot of pain. Or... "He...will live." It's probably best to keep the details to myself. "But we need a medical team to take care of him. His condition is far beyond my ability to heal. He's going to need a specialist...someone with a lot more experience than I could hope to have now." I hate to admit it, but there is nothing I can do for him now, nothing but stopping the bleeding. "But I'll do what I can to make this easier for him."

My hands glow brightly, and I focus one on each of his bleeding limbs. While Gai goes to call for a medical team, the bleeding slows to a stop, and the skin begins to knit itself back together, scabs forming from the dried blood. There will probably be scars, but judging from the number of scars already littering Lee's hands, I doubt that he'll mind all that much. In fact, he probably takes pride in them, since they're a symbol of his hard work in acquiring skills that no one else could. He truly is a taijutsu master.

But will he ever be able to fight again?

Naruto races over, along with the arriving medical team. And as my best friend looks down at the fallen ninja, his blue eyes fill with anger, sadness, concern, and a million other emotions. "Bushy Brow..."

I pull my hands away from him and get to my feet, my willpower all going towards making sure that my hands don't shake. _Is this what these exams are supposed to be? Weeding out the weak by any means necessary? No matter how strong they might actually be...?_

Naruto grabs my hand and pulls me away as the medics pick Lee up and move him to a stretcher. I swallow painfully and squeeze his hand. "Naruto..." My voice is barely a whisper. "Lee...I don't think he can fight anymore..."

He freezes, staring down at me with wide blue eyes. "What do you mean?"

I watch as the medics disappear with Lee, while the last of them talks with Lee's teacher. "His injuries...they're serious, really serious. And I don't know if there's any medical ninja in the world who can heal him. At least, not completely."

Naruto's grip tightens, and he pulls me over towards the wall. "What do you mean they can't heal him!?"

I resist his shaking, only to shake my own head. "His arm and leg were crushed by the sand, his muscles are all torn up, and he's just so damaged...I don't know if he'll ever recover enough to spar, let alone go back to doing what we do." Being a ninja is hard, and having a weak body is an easy way to get yourself killed. "Even if he recovers from most of his injuries...he'll be crippled, unless we can find a doctor who can heal him properly. And I don't know if there is one..."

Naruto's big blue eyes widen with pure fear. "No...no way..." He starts to shake all on his own.

But before he can open his mouth, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight. "I know that you're angry, and I'm sorry that I can't help him any more than I already have. But shouting isn't going to do anything. I know that you want to shout, to scream, but it's not going to help." I take a deep breath and my fingers clench on his jacket. "All we can do now is avenge him. When we go to the finals, we can take out Neji, we can take out Gaara, and we'll get to do it in front of everyone, okay?" I look right into those big blue eyes. "We'll take them both down, got it?" Then I wink shakily at him. "And maybe you'll get the chance to take down Sasuke as well, I know that Lee had an interest in fighting him too, right?"

Naruto stares at me, his eyes still a little downcast. Then, they brighten with a fierce determination. "Yeah!"


	36. Thunderclaps and Earthquakes

**So, I realize that I haven't really shown you guys what it is that Akito and Hiro can do. So, this is going to be the chapter that's going to showcase a couple of the abilities of Ciara's teammates. Well, to a certain extent, after all, I've got to keep some surprises in store. So this chapter will be something of a taste of what's to come (there will be more in the finals).**

 **Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter, I'm writing the whole thing from scratch, so it's going to be a lot harder to write than most of the other fights. And they're not going to be particularly long fights, because these boys know what they're doing and they're not going to waste any time.**

* * *

A hand taps on my shoulder, and I turn around to see Akito standing behind me, smiling softly. "Hey there, you okay?"

I breathe deeply and nod. "Yeah...I'll be okay."

He pats me gently on the head. "Good, because the second last match is about to start, and you two need to get back upstairs."

A jolt passes through me as I remember that there are still four competitors left. "Wait, then who-" I look around Akito's shoulder at the board, and a sigh of relief passes my lips. "You're...fighting that Sound ninja." Akito Takara vs. Dosu Kinuta. I was worried for a while that Akito and Hiro might have to fight each other. But it seems that now, my fears can be put to rest.

It also means that all three of us are going to the finals, because I already know that both my boys are going to win. That's why I let Naruto drag me back up to the viewing deck without complaint. Once there, the two of us plant ourselves next to Hiro and Yuki-Sensei. And only now does it occur to me and the two of us have been doing a lot of migrating during these matches. We've barely spent a match and a half in a single spot, without one of us moving at least five to ten feet.

Once upstairs, I watch as the proctor raises his hand. "The eleventh match, Akito Takara and Dosu Kinuta." He looks at the two of them, and neither one of them looks particularly nervous. Then again, it's hard to tell with Dosu, since his face is mostly covered. "You may begin."

Dosu sways a little as he sinks into a defensive looking position. "So...you're that ninja from the first day. You were protecting that girl up there..." His visible eyes finds me, and I glare right back at him.

"Why wouldn't I? After all, she's on my team. And she's the reason that the three of us got here in one piece." It almost sounds like he's trying to brag about me. "Anyone who tries to hurt her isn't just going to be dealing with her talents, they'll be dealing with me and Hiro as well. And the three of us are not people that you should take lightly."

"You know it!" Hiro shouts giddily, his smile bright as he watches the two of them try to one-up each other. "Now go on and finish this guy off! I wanna get on to my match, you know!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Akito waves his hand lazily. "Let's get this started then, shall we?"

"Gladly..." Dosu raises his arm with the sound generator on it, and it almost looks like he's going to flick it.

Luckily, from what we saw just before the first exam, Akito knows what's up with that thing. His hands are a blur as he weaves his seals, and just before Dosu can set off his sound waves, a flash of blindingly bright light fills the room, along with a crackling that sounds like water thrown onto hot oil with birds singing outside of the window. Breakfast, it sounds like breakfast. And then, it sounds like nothing short of a deafening thunderclap in the middle of the room, a sound wave far more powerful than what Dosu pulled on the first day.

When the light dies, what we see is Akito standing there with his hand pointed out, and two fingers extended towards Dosu, who is collapsed on the ground. Naruto's eyes go wide once more. "What...what did he just do to that Sound ninja?"

Akito chuckles, having heard Naruto's question easily. "Lightning Style: White Thunder. It hits in an instant and is almost impossible to dodge, even with advance warning." His fingertips crackle with residual electricity, proving his powerful lightning affinity.

Looking around, I can see new devastation added to what we've already managed to do to the room. There are fresh scorch marks on the walls, created by lightning this time, rather than my fiery breath from earlier. That means that this technique of his, apart from being obviously powerful, is also far reaching, and spew out in multiple directions. From the looks of it, it's meant to be inescapable. And judging by the fact that Dosu is lying unconscious on the floor, I would say that it proved itself to be a formidable technique. _I wonder if he could have taken out a few of those tigers... I mean, I know that they're a lot bigger than humans, so it might not have worked so well...but still, that's one hell of a lightning attack._

The proctor blinks rather dazedly, like he's trying to remove the stars from his eyes as he examines Dosu's prone form. "Um...the winner is Akito Takara."

Naruto recoils slightly, his eyes focused on Akito. "He just...he totally just took that guy down with one move!"

I frown slightly at the sight. _That did seem rather easy... Maybe it was wrong to put us in these exams...maybe they should have just bent the rules and promoted us without them._ They did, after all, hold Hiro and Akito back a year so that they could be placed on the same team as me. Surely there's no need for the old man to just re-confirm things that he already knows.

Without any further ado, Akito jumps back up to the viewing deck and lands right beside me, grinning like a maniac. "So, was that cool or what!?"

I roll my eyes at him. "It probably would have been cooler if we were actually able to see what you did. Your stunt nearly blinded the whole room, you idiot." Okay, I might be exaggerating on that last bit, but he deserves to be chewed out for that. At least a little bit. "Anyway...there's only one match left." I glance over at Hiro pointedly. "And you two are pretty lucky that you didn't end up having to face each other." Honestly, that would have really bummed me out, because then our team would have a wedge driven in by a competition between the two of them for a spot in the finals.

"You're right, we did get lucky!" Hiro wiggles his ears and grins. "Well then, I guess it's my turn to make a spectacle of myself." Without even waiting for the board to announce him and Chouji as the last two competitors, Hiro presses his hand to the railing, vaulting over it easily. He spends about two seconds in the air, before his feet hit the floor. He carries himself with a light confidence, which is pretty typical of him. Even if his back is against the wall, or he's facing down a potential rock slide, he can keep his cool under pressure. And considering how many times we've been sent to the mountains to rescue hikers, I would know about the rock slide bit.

And judging by how quickly he got down there, he's in no need of any pre-match advice. Then again, he's fighting Chouji. And knowing that he's from the Akimichi Clan, hiro probably has a pretty good idea what he's dealing with. That clan has some pretty standard and well-known techniques, and I'm sure that Akito has yacked Hiro's ear off whenever I'm not around.

Ino, on the other hand, is my opposite in the cheerleading squad. "Go Chouji!" She's got no clue that Chouji is going to lose this match badly.

One last time, the proctor raises his hand for attention. "The twelfth and final match, Chouji Akimichi and Hiro Kazaki."

I lean towards Akito and whisper quietly. "How long do you think it's going to take him to end this match?"

"Oh...I'd give him about thirty seconds, give or take." I think Akito might just be saying that because his match only lasted twenty five seconds. These two get competitive over the strangest things. Which, actually, isn't very strange at all.

I shrug, ready to take that bet. "I say closer to a minute. You're the speed demon, remember?"

Akito smirks. "If you're right, the three of us go for barbecue later, and I'm buying."

"Deal." Though he should have learned from earlier that I rarely take bets if I think I'm going to lose.

Chouji is jumping from foot to foot, obviously excited about something. _I wonder if his teacher bribed him with food if he won._ I shake my head weakly. _If that's the case, then Chouji is going to be sorely disappointed. I'm the one getting barbecue tonight._ Since I can hardly expect Kiba to be fit enough for dinner tonight. I'll wait until tomorrow for that.

"You really think that he can beat Chouji in just a minute?" Naruto looks at me skeptically. "That's a bit unbelievable, don't you think?"

I point over to Akito bluntly. "He won in twenty-five seconds. And the first twenty seconds were all talking."

Naruto's face pales a little. "Jeez...I'm glad he wasn't my opponent."

"You should be..." I edge a little closer to Naruto as we watch the beginning of this last match.

And predictably, Chouji goes ahead and uses his family's signature jutsu, expanding his body and turning it basically into a big rolling meatball. And that's when the rumbling starts. Chouji is rolling around the floor so fast that he's nearly causing a mini-earthquake inside of the building. Luckily, Hiro is fast enough to dive out of the way of each pass as Chouji rolls around in circles. Hiro seems to be waiting for something, watching Chouji carefully as the younger ninja literally rolls circles round him.

Then, Hiro twitches, and he weaves a handful of signs. He's slower in that department than me and Akito, so I can catch the order of them. _Snake, Ram, Dog, Rat, Snake, Tiger._ His chakra flares, specifically around hi left arm, before he takes one huge step forward and drives his fist into Chouji's giant body on his next pass.

I suppose that it's a good thing that Chouji can't see while he's rolling around like that, otherwise Hiro would have had to chase him down to get that hit in. As it stands, Chouji goes flying across the room and smashes violently into the opposite wall, where he sinks to the floor in a daze.

The proctor calls for attention for the results of the final match. "Winner, Hiro Kazaki."

Akito smirks slightly, so I elbow him in the gut. "What is it?"

He chuckles and shake his head. "Fifty-six seconds. Looks like you win the bet."

"Was there ever any doubt?" I laugh at my good fortune. "Maybe one day, people will learn to stop making bets with me. Because I don't lose them often."

Naruto shivers beside me. "Yeah...she's not kidding." He's probably thinking back to a time when he and I used to make bets for fun, and he would lose without exception. If I bet on him, I win, but if he bets against me, he loses.

Now that the matches are over, the proctor coughs loudly for attention. He's going to announce the next part of the exam, I'm sure of it. "And with that match, the third exam preliminaries are now finished. Would all of the participants moving on to the next round please step forward."

"Guess that means us." I elbow Akito, before grabbing Naruto's hand and pulling him over the railing with me. The two of us race over to where the proctor is standing, and with the others joining us, we line up in front of the three proctors who have been overseeing this exam. Akito stands to my left, and Naruto to my right, while Hiro takes a place a little further down the line.

Our most recent proctor steps forward to address us. "I commend all those who have advanced to the finals for the third level of the Chunin Exams." He looks down the line. "Well, there's one person missing, but still, congratulations."

As I look up and down the line, I can see that it's really stacked quite unevenly. There are three from the Sand village, but the rest of us are here from the Leaf. And including Sasuke, that makes eight of us. Eleven ninja going on to the finals, and three quarters of them are Leaf shinobi.

Gramps walks over, tilting his hat with a smile. "And now, I will begin the explanation of the final rounds." I groan silently. _Another long-winded lecture? How many of these does he expect us to sit through?_ "In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display. You'll demonstrate the power and control you've achieved in your respective disciplines. Accordingly, the final battles will commence on month from now."

"Wait, we're not gonna do it right here and now?" Naruto should really learn how to be less eager to jump into a fight. Though I suppose that he wouldn't be Naruto if he wasn't.

Gramps nods. "This is to provide a suitable period of preparation."

Neji frowns. "What do you mean by that?"

"Simply, this." Gramps takes a whiff of his pipe. "In addition to announcing the conclusion of the preliminary matches to each country's leaders, we must also have some time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selection." Then, he smiles. "Not to mention that you examinees are going to need time to prepare for something that is this important."

"Look, I don't really get what you're trying to say." And Kankuro is probably not the only one thinking that. "What's the point of this?"

Gramps grows serious in an instant. "I mean that to know your adversaries and prepare yourselves, you need time. Even though up to this point, all the battles have been real battles, as I'm sure you can all attest. They were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy."

"But now that we've all watched each other fight and kick out our friends and teammates, that unknown variable has been taken out, right?" I watch Gramps carefully for his reaction.

And he nods approvingly. "Exactly. So, in order to make the finals fair and just, we're giving you this month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks. Because by now, everyone here knows your techniques, so using your old, tired tricks is a sure way to lose in the finals. And remember to get some rest as well." Of course he would round that off with some concern for our health.

Naruto stops listening to the old man and glares down the line at Neji and Gaara, so my fingers trail down and find his hand, and I squeeze it hard. He's got a hit list, and I am more than willing to help him cross names off of it. "We can do this, Naruto." I smile lightly. "Believe it."

"Now, with all of that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up!" Gramps smiles. "But before we can bring this to an end, there is one more important matter that we have to take care of for the final round."

Naruto nods, but he's not quite content to just leave things like this. "Let's get on with it! I mean, come on! How long do we have to wait until we start training!?"

Gramps largely ignores Naruto's outburst. "In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko is holding.

"Everyone just stay where you are, I'll come to you." She cuts us off before any of us can even open our mouths. She holds it in front of Akito first. "Just take one."

Akito reaches his hand inside, pulling out a single slip of paper. Anko holds the box out to me next, and I pull a slip of paper as well. It holds the number five. Naruto pulls a paper next, and seems confused by whatever is on it. Anko continues down the line until we're each holding a slip of paper in our hands.

Ibiki looks down the line and holds up a clipboard. "Good, now everyone has one. Going from left to right, tell me the number that's written on your slip of paper."

Akito holds up his paper for Ibiki to see. "I've got six."

"Five." I glance at Akito's slip curiously. _We got numbers right next to each other...weird._

Naruto sniffs impatiently. "Number one of course."

"Seven." Temari is rather concise with her answer.

Kankuro hums slightly. "Eleven...but...I'm not sure that this is the right call for me."

Ibiki pauses, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Oh, and why is that?"

Kankuro shrugs. "I only came this far to make Gaara and Temari happy, so I don't see a point to me going any further this year." Neither of his teammates make a comment on that, and it seems to be rather tacit agreement.

Ibiki purses his lips, but nods anyway. "Very well then, you name will be taken from the list." He scratches on his clipboard, presumably taking Kankuro off the list of finalists. "Next."

Gaara's gravelly voice is heard next. "Three."

Shikamaru yawns. "Eight."

"I've got ten!" Hiro grins eagerly. "Looks like I'm the only one in the double digits."

Neji huffs impatiently. "Two."

"Nine." Shino is as silent as usual, saying only the bare minimum, and with a blank tone.

Ibiki makes the last notes. "And that means Sasuke will be number four."

"Right!" Gramps gives another nod of approval. "Now, I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work."

"Ha!?" Naruto twitches, not believing his ears.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, sounds offended. "Is that what the numbers were for? Drawing lots?"

Gramps ignores the outbursts once more. "Ibiki, you may reveal which ninja have been paired up."

"Yes, sir." Ibiki turns the clipboard around, revealing something or a horror story.

There are ten contestants on the page, paired up in numerical order. As numbers one and two, Naruto looks to be facing Neji right off the bat. And then Sasuke will have to deal with Gaara. On the other end, Shikamaru will have to fight Temari, and the winner of their match will fight the winner of Hiro and Shino's match. Whoever wins that match will have to... _Oh...crap._ Right next to each other are mine and Akito's names. We'll be the third match, and the winner of our match will face whoever wins their way through the uneven final matches. So I'll have to face Akito first, and if I win that, I could end up going against Hiro, or even Temari. And assuming that I make it through that, I could end up fighting Naruto or Sasuke, whoever ends up coming out of their block.

And I'm sure that I'm not the only one analyzing the match-ups. And Naruto looks rather pleased with his first round opponent. He also looks like he's imagining all the ways he could put the Hyuga in the ground. But on my end, Akito locks eyes with me, looking more than a little worried. We know well that this is the finals, but I'm sure that no one on my team wants to fight each other right off the bat.

Shikamaru is the first to raise his hand, though. "May I ask you a question?"

Gramps nods. "You may."

"Alright, if this is a tournament, does that mean there's only going to be one winner? I mean, only one of us is going to be able to become a chunin, then?" He makes a good point, but it sounds a little odd to me. _If they only promote one genin to chunin each time...then how do we end up with so many chunin? It doesn't make sense..._

"Actually, it's quite the contrary." Gramps says that like it's supposed to assuage our fear. "There's going to be several judges for the final round, including myself, the shinobi leaders, and the Kazekage, the lords from the various countries that ultimately will be assigning your missions to you. Through this tournament, these judges will be able to a thorough evaluation of your abilities." And Naruto is nodding his head like he understands what's going on. Which, somehow, I doubt he does. "They will then decide whether any or all of you possess the qualities required of a chunin. Even if someone loses the first round, they could still become a chunin."

"So...there's actually a chance that every one of us who competes in the final selection could become chunin." Temari sounds a lot less relieved than she should be. But I'll file that behavior under 'investigate later' for now.

"Correct. Conversely, there's also a chance that none of you will be chosen." Gramps does well at raising our spirits, before dampening them again. "The advantage in fighting more rounds in the tournament is in getting more chances to display your talents in front of the judges who will decide your fate. Does that answer your question, Shikamaru?"

My eye twitches slightly. _I think that you've covered almost every possible question already...so can we just go? I'm hungry, and Akito promised to cover dinner tonight..._

Gramps seems to notice that he is losing his pre-teen and teenage audience. "I think you for your patience. Now, let us adjourn until next month. Dismissed."

 _Finally..._ I grab hold of Akito and Hiro eagerly. "Come on, let's ditch this forest and head back into town, I'm hungry!"

As my stomach starts to rumble, the two of them laugh, and Akito wipes tears from his eyes. "Alright, let's get you some food. You've burned through a lot of chakra today, so I guess we should have seen this coming."

I smirk at my silly teammate. "Just remember, you're paying for dinner!"

"Yeah, yeah..." He smiles as the two of them let me drag them out of the building and back into the forest. And thanks to the five days of examinees running through the forest, it's already been mostly cleared of dangers. So there's nothing to stop us from making a beeline straight for one of the closest gates.


	37. Secrets No More

**So...I've been sick (enough that my teachers were kind of wary about having me in class this week), not to mention last night's major power outage putting a damper on things (along with the monsoon that we got a taste of). Thankfully, Thanksgiving is this weekend. I'm really looking forward to the long weekend, since it'll give me plenty of time to write. And I should be getting my laptop back in about a week, which is nice. I've been so lost without it, since it's almost impossible to get my stories organized without Scrivener (it's scary how dependent I've become on that program).**

 **Now, the next few chapters are something I'm going to have to get a little creative for, since they're more...some behind the scenes stuff before the final rounds. And I got some inspiration for some kinda traumatic shit, so I'll be throwing in a taste of that during this chapter. And something of an in-story reveal, since it's now appropriate to put it in. It's a bit shorter, but I'm hoping that impact will make up for the length, or lack thereof. It's meant to be on the emotional side.**

* * *

It's barely been two days since the preliminaries, and I'm feeling rather stumped. I have no idea what I should be working on. After our team had dinner together, it was decided that we would all train separately, since we would be largely missing the point by training together. Especially since Akito and I are guaranteed a fight in the finals.

So with that in mind, I should probably be training to counter whatever Akito can throw at me. Which means that my ninjutsu training would have to focus on my wind element, since he would just douse any fire I threw at him. And unfortunately, I don't have anything that can effectively deal with that water of his. Well, except for maybe cutting it apart with wind blades, but that's a trick he's seen plenty of times before.

And that's not to mention all of the other competitors as well. Because if I focus too heavily on trying to beat Akito, I'll be at a disadvantage when going up against the ones I haven't trained for. Conversely, if I train too much in anticipation of the later fights, I might lose to Akito and not even make it that far. Then there's the matter of the little friend I have living in my stomach, and whether to ask him for help or not. Though I'm leaning towards not, since that might not go over so well in front of what is sure to be a large audience.

I suppose that I could always go and train with Naruto, since not only do we know each other well enough to know basically all of the other's moves and habits, He's also unpredictable enough that even if we do know each other better than anyone else, no one would ever be able to call a fight between us boring. Though really, I just don't like the idea of training alone.

But, looking up at the sky, it's probably not a good idea to start training. Not only is it getting late, but it looks like there's a storm coming in. _I guess...I'll go and see Naruto tomorrow?_ It's not like I'll have anything better to do. And it's no secret to those who know me that it's not good for me to get bored. Bad things happen when I get bored, mostly from indulging, and heavens forbid, participating in Naruto's pranks too much.

* * *

 _Out of the darkness steps a figure, a familiar figure. It's that boy from before, the one with the fair hair, the scar on his face, and the pink eyes._

 _Yagura, I think._

 _He turns towards me, and I can see terrible burns all over his body, his skin red, and even charred black in some places. I try to move my hands to my mouth to cover my gasp, but I can't move, not even an inch. 'What's going on?' My voice isn't working either. 'Hello!?' Nothing._

 _Yagura watches me, at least it seems that way. But his eyes are blank, lifeless, and empty of any and all emotion. It's like he no longer has a soul. There's something so fundamentally wrong with what I'm seeing. He shouldn't be so cold and..._

 _Dead._

 _I try to reach out for him, to touch him, but I still can't move. It's like my body is frozen in place. Then, the fear in me begins to rise as a huge shadow appears behind him. A giant hill, with spikes all over it, and three giant waving tails._

 _Tails?_ _Why does that sound familiar?_

 _The shadow grows darker, more solid, and I can almost make out the features of the large gray shape. It's so familiar, but I don't know why. Maybe, if I could touch it, I would be able to figure out why. Maybe...just maybe...I can solve this mystery._

 _Why do I see this boy in my dreams? Or are they nightmares?_

 _In an instant, I'm released from my immobility, only to double over and collapse to the ground in pain. I've never felt this kind of burning pain before, and it makes me want to scream. But still, I can't hear my own voice. There's nothing but pain and silence, and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and despair. A deep dark pit, with no way out. No way to escape._

 _I hate this._

 _I hate them._

 _They hate me._

 _Why do they hate me?_

 _I only wanted to protect them._

 _I don't want to be like this anymore._

 _Someone, please...help me!_

 _Help me!_

 _HELP ME!_

* * *

"Ciara! Ciara, wake up!" There's a shaking feeling, the whole world is shaking. "Ciara! It's a nightmare, wake up! Wake up, dammit!" The shaking continues, growing more intense each second.

My hands close tightly, and my eyes flash open, ready to go on the attack. But instead of seeing danger, the shaking stops, and my eyes fall on a mop of messy blond hair and a pair of bright blue eyes. I know those eyes well. "N-Naru..to?" I'm shaking, but this time, it's me, and not something else shaking me.

A hand comes down on my head, and an arm circles around my waist, pulling me into his lap. "I heard you screaming, ya know? You kept sayin' 'help me'." He tucks me against him, letting me bury my face against his shirt. "I've never heard you that scared...so I came in, sorry."

I shake my head, clutching his shirt tighter in my fists. "I...saw someone...he was in pain...so much pain..." Tears drip down my cheeks and soak into the dark green fabric of his pajama shirt. Tears produced by the feeling of having my heart torn out of my chest. Torn out...for someone I don't even know.

It's times like this that I can appreciate Naruto having an emotional intelligence, rather than a more book-oriented one. Feelings are what he's always been good at, even if he pretends not to be, he knows his stuff when it really counts. He rocks us back and forth, not saying a word, which is rather unlike his usual boisterous personality. I don't need to talk right now, I just need something to ground me to reality. And right now, Naruto is what's keeping me grounded, keeping me sane.

A few minutes later, after I've cried out all of the tears I can manage, reduced to nothing more than dry sobbing and quiet sniffling, he loosens his grip on me and allows me to slide back down onto the mattress of my bed. He stares at me, his big blue eyes full of worry. "...what happened to you this time?" He reminds me that this isn't the first time he's run into my apartment to calm me down after a nightmare.

It's funny, actually. The first time he burst into my house when I was having a nightmare, he came in through the window. We were about eight at the time, and it was shortly after I joined the academy. I nearly had a heart attack upon finding out that someone had gotten into my apartment, and I nearly killed him with a frying pan. After that incident, though, we traded each other our spare keys, just in case something happened. And each time either of us has an incident, it only reinforces our decision to trust each other with our safety.

And more than once, those keys have been used in the event of a nightmare, and not always my own. Though I suppose that both of us have more than enough trauma in our pasts to provide plenty of fuel for nightmares. Sometimes, I want to curse the world for the unfairness of it all, but I know well enough that cursing the world will do nothing to solve the problem. So, I latch onto Naruto, and him onto me, and we weather the storm, no matter how rough.

So, I take a deep breath, and get ready to start off yet another uncomfortable conversation with Naruto. Then again, it's not really all that uncomfortable, since we've gotten more than a little used to this over the years. "I saw a boy..." I gulp slightly at the thought of his pale face. "I've had a dream about him before. But this time...there was so much pain. And there was a dark shadow behind him, something huge, something powerful... But he was in so much pain...and he was so lonely..." I feel like bursting into tears again. Then, another memory comes to mind. "And...there was so much fear. Just like...after my match. That guy..." I grit my teeth and remember the look of fear and hatred on his face. "He called me a monster...a demon."

"He what!?" Of course Naruto would be outraged at hearing something like that. He's protective of his friends, to say the least. "Where the hell does he get off calling you that!?"

"Because...I am." I drop my eyes to my hands and close them, taking a deep breath. _I guess, it's now or never._ I open my eyes once more, a burning heat flowing through me. "Naruto...I know what's inside of you."

He stares into my eyes, his own growing wider. "You...what!?"

"The fox...I know about him." I look down to his stomach, where I'm pretty sure the seal would be showing if he were to start infusing chakra. "I know that you're the container for the Nine-Tailed Fox."

As I look back up to his eyes, he looks guilty, even afraid. "You...you know? But...how long?"

"Longer than you think." I smile gently at him. "I think...the first time I put it all together was when we were...ten? But I've known about the fox demon having a container since I was really little, barely able to walk." I think about my father fondly. "...Dad used to tell me that in the village, there was a little boy with a demon sealed away inside of him. He said that he was holding the demon back, so that it wouldn't destroy the village."

"Yeah..." Naruto's hands drift down towards his stomach, his face falling drastically.

"But..." I place my hands over his and smile sadly. "He also told me that the little boy who was its container would be a hero one day, that it was his destiny. And he said that the village didn't think so, that they hated the boy, even though they had no right to, which was why no one was allowed to talk about it." It makes me smirk to think that my family really didn't play by the rules. "And he said that the most important thing..." I raise my hands and wrap them around Naruto's shoulders. "Is that even the boy who carries a terrifying demon inside of him...deserves to be loved. That someone like that is who deserves it...who needs it the most."

Naruto looks back up at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears. I know his rule, that he won't allow himself to cry if he can help it. "But...then what about you? Why did he call you a demon?"

My smile fades a little. "Naruto...I love you. So, so much. My family is gone, and I'll never get them back. Everyone I've ever loved has left me behind, and I can't lose you too. You're my best friend, and the closest thing I've ever had to an annoying and protective big brother. Which is why...I'm finally going to tell you my biggest secret." Heat floods my eyes, and I know that they've changed color. "Like you, I carry a power inside of me that would terrify people if they knew about it. It's part of the reason I've protected you so passionately. And while I can say that he's probably a lot more friendly than your little friend, he's just as capable of leveling this village in a matter of minutes."

I lift up the hem of my nightgown, not at all affected by the fact that he can see my underwear. Honestly, we've seen each other in our underwear so many times that it's no longer an issue. And there, branded onto my skin is a whirling seal with a million little symbols spreading around it. And there are five distinctive tongues lashing out in all directions, each of them a different color.

His eyes drop to my stomach, and his hand reaches out to touch my skin. I resist the urge to giggle at the ticklish sensation as his fingers run over my skin. "This...doesn't look like my seal..."

I shake my head. "Probably because it's a different kind of seal. But it does the same thing that yours does. It keeps a demon inside my body, its power locked there, not meant to come out." As his fingers fall away, I lower my nightgown. "But he wasn't sealed there to protect the village...he was sealed there to save my life."

"Save your life?" Naruto frowns. "What happened?"

I sigh and shake my head. "That's a story for another time...but one night, I nearly died. And so, Suzaku was sealed into me to keep me alive."

"Suzaku?" He frowns slightly. "Is...that his name?"

I nod slightly. "Yes. And according to him...he is a bird of fire...with ten tails."

"Ten tails?" Naruto's frown deepens, but it's a thinking frown, not an angry frown. "Like the Nine-Tails?"

"I think so..." I'm not entirely sure, since he hasn't actually told me that. But his silence about it was suspicious enough to make me think otherwise. "I mean, I don't know for sure. I just know that...I'm like you, and that's one of the reasons I know that I can trust you with this." Now, the guilt starts welling up inside of me. "But...if you want me to tell people...then I can take some of the heat off you. It'll be easier for you if the villager hate the both of-"

"No!" He shouts, and I wonder if he's accidentally woken the neighbors yet. "I'm not letting you tell anyone! Not yet..." He smiles bravely, a mask that I know very well. "They already hate me...and I don't want them to hate you too."

I'm not sure if I should feel guilty or relieved. Though even considering feeling relieved just makes me feel even more guilty. "But..."

"It's alright!" Naruto grins even more brightly. "You watch my back, and I'll watch yours, right? There's no reason to tell anybody something that isn't their business! Believe it!"

His enthusiasm makes me smile weakly. "Yeah...believe it." I can't believe that all of this started with a nightmare. And now, Naruto and I are sitting here making what sounds like a promise for the ages.

Then, he turns on a dime, his enthusiasm only growing. "Oh yeah, it's almost time for breakfast! Let's eat together, and later, I'll introduce you to this cool new teacher I found! He's a real old pervert, but that's okay, he really knows what he's doing!"

"A...wait, he's a what!?" Already, I'm not liking the sound of this. And it wouldn't be the first time that Naruto dragged me headfirst into trouble. "Naruto, are you sure about this?" I ask that like I trust him to be sure and informed about everything. Really, I should know better by now.

"Yeah, it'll be fine!" He hops off my bed and heads straight for the door. "You coming, or what!? I'll make us some ramen!" He says that like it's the most normal thing to do after a nightmare and an unexpected slew of sleepover traditions.

I stifle a laugh as I get up off my bed. _Well, not much point in going back to sleep now. And this way, I don't have to go and track Naruto down later._ This should work to relieve my boredom. Though I get the feeling that this is going to turn into utter chaos before the day is over.

For now...I might as well sit with Naruto as we stuff our faces with instant ramen.


	38. The Pervy Toad Sage

**It's raining, it's pouring, and the visibility past a couple hundred feet is non-existent. It's like a curtain of fog that gets thicker and thicker until you literally can't see anything but white. No mountains, no ocean, nothing.**

 **Okay, so it's time for Ciara to meet Jiraiya. This is going to be...interesting. Some of it is going to be canon, but some of it is going to go kinda off track, because I honestly don't like how overly stupid Naruto is portrayed at this point (even though he's known since the incident with Mizuki precisely what's sealed inside of him).**

* * *

After a rather late and long breakfast, Naruto drags me out of his house and off towards the other side of the village. "Come on, I'm meeting him over this way!" Naruto tugs me over towards a forested area, one of the training grounds here in the village. "He's a weird old pervert, but he knows a lot of cool stuff!" There should be a river and waterfall somewhere around here. _I wonder where we're..._ Then, Naruto pulls us out of the trees and onto the rocky shore of the river. "Here we are!"

I look around, taking in the view. It's a nice place, perfect for some discreet training. "So...where is this guy?" Naruto called him the Pervy Sage during breakfast, but until I meet the old man, I'll have no idea how accurate that description is.

But as I hear laughter and turn my head towards the source of the noise, I notice an old guy with a mane of white hair, staring through the bushes at a group of girls playing in the water. Naruto, clearly rather irritated, crosses his arms and frowns. "Knock it off."

"We're truly in paradise, Naruto." The old man doesn't even turn around at the sound of Naruto's admonishment.

"You are so creepy." Naruto turns to me and sighs. "And here I thought he was going to behave himself today..."

"Hm...I see what you meant by pervy, though..." I keep my voice quiet, sine the last thing I want to do is cause a scene. "But...how do we get his attention?"

Naruto frowns, then the rolls his eyes and places his hands together, disappearing in a cloud of white smoke. When the smoke clears, there is a older, female, and very naked version of Naruto standing there. He, or she, approaches the old man, covering his eyes with two dainty hands. "Hi Master Jiraiya, shouldn't you pay attention to me, now? I'm just desperate for someone to train me, and you're the only one who can do it, Super Hunky Sensei. Pretty please, Master Jiraiya?" His tactics make me want to gag, maybe even throw up my breakfast.

"So you finally came out of hiding, huh?" His attention switches from the girls to Naruto in an instant. "I've been waiting for you!" As Jiraiya gets up, Naruto hops away, reversing what I seem to recall hearing him once call his Sexy Jutsu. And Jiraiya is more than a little disappointed when he turns around, only to find Naruto standing there in all of his orange jumpsuited glory. "No fair..." He starts to whine a little. "Are you just making fun of me, Naruto?"

Naruto grumbles slightly. "Look, there's nothing fun about this situation."

Then, Jiraiya's eyes fall on me. "So, who's this little cutie?"

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto steps between me and the old man. "You are so not staring at Ciara like that, you pervert. She's just here so that me and her can train together."

The old man gets a slightly sour look on his face. "What, now you want me to train the both of you? Maybe if she was a little older..."

At this point, I can't leave it up to Naruto, especially since I'm now taking offense. "I'm not even twelve and a half! If you want someone to ogle, go find a red light district!" I suppose that's something rather scandalous for a twelve year old to be saying, but hey, we're ninja. They send teenagers out to assassinate people, talking a little scandalously is far from the worst thing that's been done.

There's a slight commotion over where the girls are, and Jiraiya turns with a groan. "Ah great...now they're leaving, darn it." He sighs dejectedly. "Alright, Naruto...I guess I'll teach you a technique now."

"Well, it's about time, and you'd better not be kidding around here." Naruto seems more than a little aggravated that this old pervert isn't giving him the attention he wants. Then again, with the preliminaries coming up in less than a month, I can certainly see why he's so impatient about getting started.

"So...why am I here again?" Not that I don't want to be here, but this training seems to be for Naruto only.

Naruto turns to me and grins. "Why else? I need someone to practice this stuff on. And I know that if it's you, you'll be fine! You can heal yourself, right?"

 _So that's it...he just needs an indestructible practice partner. Well, I suppose that it'll cure my boredom, and give me a chance to practice with someone. Maybe I can use this opportunity to work on my taijutsu skills._ I shake my head and sigh. "Jeez...I can't believe that I'm about to agree to be your punching bag." I grin at him eagerly. "But if that's the case, then I'm going to make good use of you as well. Because my taijutsu, in a word, sucks."

Jiraiya's eyes focus on me for a moment, and for a second, it almost looks like he's analyzing me. Which is weird, since he was looking at those other girls with an absolutely perverted look on his face earlier. "Well...maybe you two can get to the taijutsu training later. Because this technique isn't something that you should be using in a fight until you master it." He gestures to Naruto. "Come here." And once Naruto gets closer, Jiraiya squats down in front of him. "Okay...do you remember what we talked about yesterday, you know, that stuff about the two types of chakra?"

Naruto frowns, then his eyes widen and flick to me. I know that we're thinking the same thing. This guy is talking about the fox. Then, he shifts into a more relaxed pose. "Huh? We talked yesterday?"

I stifle my laughter as Jiraiya's eye twitches. "Very funny. Remember how you said something about having different chakra, one blue and one red?"

"Uh...yeah? So what about it?" Naruto's wariness goes up a notch.

Jiraiya frowns slightly. "You said when you exerted enormous strength, you felt red chakra."

"Uh, yeah, I...don't know how else to describe it." Naruto turns to me nervously. "Hey Ciara, what colors are your chakras?"

The question startles me a little, but I try not to let it show. My eyes flick to Jiraiya for a moment. _If they're talking like this...then he knows, right?_ "Uh, well, I guess I would say that one of them is...white? And the other is a red, orange, and gold swirl, like...seeing a fire during a sunset, with a blood moon rising into the sky." It's not easy to paint a picture, but I hope that's elaborate enough.

"I see..." Jiraiya seems to be a lot more focused now, though I'm not entirely sure why. "Alright, Naruto, try building up that red chakra right now."

"Right now?" Naruto looks a little unconvinced. And considering that the only time I've ever seen him do it is while under extreme emotional stress, I doubt that he'll just be able to summon it on command. But, he presses his hands together anyway. "Okay, I'll give it a try." But as he concentrates, nothing seems to be changing nearly that drastically.

Jiraiya stares sternly at Naruto. "Well, did it work?"

Naruto frowns irritably. "No, it's not right. It's the same chakra as always.

Jiraiay groans. "Oh man...you have absolutely zero talent, don't you, kid?"

"Hey! Don't go acting like you're so great!" Naruto blows up in a second. "And besides, I can't help it! I mean I barely understand those two types of chakra myself, alright!"

Jiraiya's eyes narrow. "Just keep trying."

Naruto recoils a little, then pouts slightly and turns away. "Fine, I will." But after a minute of trying, he lowers his hands and growls. "Argh...it's just no good. I'm only getting the usual, everyday chakra here." Then, he perks up. "Hey, hold on a second, maybe I don't even need to summon the red chakra, I mean, what in the world does it have to do with the technique you're gonna teach me, anyway?"

Argh, listen boy." Jiraiya growls and gets to his feet, pointing one giant finger into Naruto's face. "For the technique I'm going to teach you, the chakra you've used until now is nowhere near powerful enough." He nearly topples Naruto over with a single poke to the forehead. "If you want to use this technique, you'll have to pull out all the stops and tap into the other chakra that's been dormant within you, summoning it up at a moment's notice."

Naruto regains his balance and glares at the old man. "Yeah, that sounds really cool and exciting, but how do you know I really have that chakra inside of me?" He glances at me, and for a moment, I wonder if he's just trying to play dumb. Then, I realize that it's exactly what he's doing, playing dumb. He's running his own little inquisition here.

"Ho ho, that's just what I wanted to hear." Jiraiya holds up a hand. "Actually, it's because I am a sage!"

Naruto stares at him in disbelief, and even I can't believe that this guy is somehow serious. "Okay...you're clearly nuts." I shake my head and sidle closer to Naruto. "And where did you say you found this guy?"

"..." Naruto winces. "At the hot springs...peeking at the girls in the bath."

I resist the urge to facepalm because of his stupidity. "Okay...because that's not suspicious at all..." I sigh and shake my head. "Are you sure that you can trust this guy with knowledge of that chakra?"

Naruto elbows me gently in the ribs. "Hey, he's the one who wants me to be able to control it. Maybe he's got a trick for it or something." Then he turns his eyes back on Jiraiya. "But I still don't see why I need that chakra for this technique. I mean can't I just use more of my regular chakra?"

Jiraiya's earlier look of exasperation falls, and he scrutinizes the two of us carefully. "You've been playing dumb this whole time, haven't you?"

Naruto and I lock eyes for a moment, before we both stare down this giant of a man. And I'm the first to speak. "You know about what's inside him, don't you? You are an adult, after all. I doubt that you haven't heard of it. Even I've heard of it, and I wasn't even born by the time it happened."

Jiraiya pauses, scrutinizing me once more. "I've heard the rumors. But what I don't know, is what's inside of you. For that matter...who are you?"

"Ciara Shiryugu." Thanks to the Chunin Exams, my name is likely already being broadcast to the world as one of the finalists. Naruto catches my eye, and I ask him a silent question, to which he nods. "And like Naruto, I have a powerful being sealed inside of me. Though he's a lot nicer than that fox, I promise."

Jiraiya's expression becomes even more serious, though with comprehension, but no judgment. "I see, that explains a few things." He glances at my stomach, where my seal would be, were I infusing chakra right now. "Have you ever used the other chakra inside of you?"

I nod slightly. "A few times. He lets me borrow it sometimes, when I ask him to help me."

Jiraiya frowns again. "When you ask him for it? You can talk to the...being sealed within you?"

The fact that he hesitated before calling Suzaku a being doesn't sit well with me, but I ignore it for now. "Yes. I talk to him, at least, I can now. He was the one who talked to me first. It was while we were in the Land of Waves. Sicne then, I've been borrowing little bits of his power from time to time, but only when I really need help. And I've only let him take over my body once."

Naruto's eyes widen at that admission. "You let Suzaku take over your body!? When!?"

I rub the back of my head sheepishly. "Uh...well...it was during the first exam, you know, for the written test. It would have been hard for me to answer the questions on my own, so he told me to let him take over my body, and he answered all of the questions for me. Well, the first nine, anyway."

"Aw...that's so not fair." Naruto pouts at his misfortune of having a rather unhelpful and uncooperative demon inside of him. And I have to admit, that I definitely have no complaints regarding my passenger's personality. Well, except for his sense of secrecy. It wouldn't kill him to explain a few things to me.

"Anyway..." I figure that we might as well get back on track. "What kind of technique are you insisting needs chakra that potent? And how can I help Naruto to learn it?"

Jiraiya holds up a hand, cutting me off. "First, let's talk about stamina." He points to Naruto. "You have a huge amount of stamina, but so far, all of your training has focused on teaching you to release a steady stream of chakra, rather than a large amount. But with your stamina, you should be training to release the largest amount of chakra possible, and then train yourself, to increase the total amount of chakra you can use. Once you do that, a whole world of jutsu will open up to you."

That sounds a little too good to be true to me. "And are you sure that his body can handle it? That much power could literally rip him apart." And the last thing I want is to lose my best friend.

"Seriously...?" Naruto looks a little uncertain now. But he wouldn't be Naruto if he stayed that way for long, because a spark of determination flickers across his face. "But...what could I do?"

Jiraiya chuckles. "Well, we'll just have to make sure that you don't push it too far, then. As for what you could do with that much powers." Jiraiya stands back up, looking around to survey the area. "The Summoning Jutsu that I'm about to teach you." He glances at me briefly. "Are you going to pester me into learning it as well?"

 _Should I...?_ I feel a little nervous about this idea. "I think I'll just watch...before deciding if I want to pester you about it."

"Summoning?" Naruto tilts his head in confusion.

"That's right." Jiraiya looks over towards a frog, sitting on a rock. "It is a teleportation technique in which you sign a contract in blood with all kinds of living creatures, and then summon them whenever you like with ninjutsu, your ninja art."

"Oh, yeah! That sounds awesome" Naruto jumps up and down excitedly. "Teach me quick, come on,right now, let's get going already!"

"Okay, just relax. Before we begin, you're going to need to use up all of your usual chakra until just your red chakra remains." Then he turns to me. "And You said something earlier about wanting to practice your taijutsu, right? So why don't the two of you try going at it for a while so that Naruto here can exhaust all of that regular chakra?"

Naruto turns to me and grins. "Alright!" He hops back, back-flipping onto a rock about ten feet away. "You ready!?"

Somehow, I get the feeling that I'm about to see a whole lot more of Naruto than I've ever wanted to. "Yeah...?"

He grins, and smoke erupts around him, revealing five of him. Jiraiya nods appreciatively. "So, he already knows the Shadow Clone Jutsu."

"Yeah, it's his favorite..." Yeah, I totally saw where this was going.

Naruto snickers. "Yeah, and I know a great way to use it to get rid of my normal chakra really quickly. And Ciara can use it to practice her Taijutsu. Just watch!" There's another burst of smoke around the clones, and when it disappears, I could swear that there's a hundred of him.

I start to sweat a little. _Well, I suppose that this is one way to polish up my taijutsu skills..._ Though, unfortunately, I didn't bring my tanto this time. Which means that all of this is going to be straight up hand to hand combat. And I know full well that those clones won't disappear unless I hit them hard enough to do some serious damage. And without my ninjutsu, that's not going to be easy.

The real Naruto steps out in front of the crowd, and they start to disperse a little, out into a crescent moon shape. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Fine, but let's leave the real you for last, okay?" I would rather not use deadly force on my friend, but using it on his clones is a whole other story.

And so, the rather pitched battle begins. I pull a couple of kunai out of the holsters on my legs. Today, I've got both holsters on, since I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to need ninja tools today. I know that other ninja prefer to have their holsters on one leg or the other, but I like having two. In fact, I like having a lot of things in twos. My holsters, my tanto, and when I draw kunai, I would rather have one in each hand. That way, I can launch an attack from any angle. I may write with my right hand, but thanks to my preference for my wind jutsu, I'm much more used to launching attacks with both hands, usually simultaneously.

I race towards the horde of Naruto clones, my eyes flicking back and forth as I watch for the first attack. It comes off to the left, only to meet with a kunai to the jugular. And judging by the speed with which Naruto's clone attacked me, it's not going to take long for me to start getting tired out.

Ten minutes and thirteen clones later, I'm panting, and nearly on my knees. Well, I'm on one knee, but that's a technicality. Jiraya frowns at me slightly. "Is that all you can do? You've barely made a dent in them!"

"I just...need to take a little break..." I've never fought this hard for this long. Usually, I just use my ninjutsu to end a battle quickly. I never draw it out like this. And I certainly don't use taijutsu to drag out a fight, at least not on purpose.

Naruto waits for me while I rest a little and down one of the small snacks I brought with me. I'd stuffed them in my pocket, not really expecting to make any use of them. Well, I'm certainly making use of them now. I knew that my taijutsu sucked, but it really does feel like I can't hold a candle to Naruto in this area. He's using a bunch of clones, sure, but I still feel like he's holding back on me.

After my fifteen minute break, I get to my feet again, and I flip my kunai knives back into my hands. "Let's do this."

* * *

In the end, ten minutes is about the most I could go before needing to take a break again. And Naruto made it even harder by summoning more clones once I'd run out of clones to fight. Though, from the looks of it, our...twelve, I think, sessions of this, have managed to wear down his chakra quite significantly. And not only that, but he's also accumulated the exhaustion, and a few of the bruises that I gave his clones. Nothing lethal, of course, but he certainly doesn't look like he's in perfect health anymore.

Finally, as the last of the clones disappear, I fall to the ground, utterly exhausted. We've been at this for well over six hours, and the sun has gotten significantly lower in the sky. Now, Jiraiya walks over, carefully stepping around me and heading for Naruto. "Well, it seems at long last, you've finally used up all of your usual chakra." Then he looks back at me. "And you look like you've completely run out of stamina. But, I suppose that's to be expected, stamina doesn't look like it's your strong suit. Go over to the umbrella and lie down. You've earned yourself a nice long rest."

I nod wearily, picking myself up and managing to make it over to the umbrella's shade before collapsing again. From here, I watch as Naruto springs to his feet. _That old pervert must be ready to teach him now... Good._

Of course, I don't have to wait very long for a demonstration of what he's planning on teaching Naruto, because less than a minute later, he weaves a few signs that I can't quite see from this angle, and slams his palm onto the ground. Smoke billows up around him, and when it clears, it reveals him sitting on the head of a giant toad.

Now, while it is clearly a powerful and high level technique, I'm definitely going to have to pass on this one. Maybe it's just because I've got a giant flaming bird sealed inside me, but no matter how nice the toads are, I don't really think it would be a good idea for me to try summoning them. That said, if any of them want to hang out sometime, well, as long as they don't put their tongues places they shouldn't, then I have no problem with that. Plus, I think that only one of us really needs the ability to summon toads.

The toad rolls out its tongue and places a scroll in Naruto's hands. And that confuses me a little. That is, until a familiar presence flows through my being. _That which you see there is a summoning contract. It is used to bind together the toads of Mount Myoboku, and their summoners._

 _Mount Myoboku?_ I've never heard of a place like that before. _What's that? And how do you know about it?_

Suzaku chuckles, as though amused by my curiosity. _It is the land of the summoning toads. Every summoning species has their own special habitat. Mount Myoboku is their equivalent of a ninja village._

 _Oh..._ I suppose that makes sense, since even giant toads must need a place to eat, sleep, and spend time with their families. _So...does that mean that you think that I should ask Jiraiya to teach me how to summon them?_ I'm actually rather hoping that he will tell me no, but there's no guarantee here.

 _No, child. While I have respect for the toads, and you could learn much from them, they do not suit you as a summon. They do not suit us. But do not worry, when you are older and your body is grown, there are many things that I will show you. And if you wish, summoning may be one of them._

Before I can respond, Naruto's voice snaps me back to reality. "Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!" And I lean over to watch him slam his own palm against the ground.

However, instead of a giant toad, like the one the Pervy Sage is sitting on, all there is in front of Naruto is a tiny tadpole, flopping helplessly out of the water. And from the sounds of it, even the giant toad is disappointed with how that turned out.

I sigh and roll over onto my back, covering my eyes and trying not to laugh. _Well, looks like summoning isn't nearly as easy as that old man makes it seem. Though...this does explain why Naruto called him the Toad Sage during breakfast._ Well, that, and several rather unflattering names.

 _Maybe I should let him practice on his own for a couple of days...it might salvage some of his pride that way._

But, that does mean that I'll have to find another way to entertain myself.


	39. Hospital Break

**Alright, so since Sasuke is a stubborn idiot who insists on leaving the hospital, even when he probably shouldn't, why don't we have someone who isn't chronically late update him on what happened during the preliminaries, shall we?**

 **Plus, bonding time is good, even for anti-social bastards who end up going through sociopathic phases, rather than simple teenage rebellion.**

 **Ah...the joys of teenage angst (or almost teenage angst, since he's about two and a half weeks off his thirteenth birthday at this point in the story).**

 **That said, Sasuke is still going to do some talking (admittedly, it's mostly about the finals and who is moving on, because he doesn't want to be the only one going in with no idea what's going on), and also because he's not a completely mute bastard. Yet.**

 **I also plan on teasing him, because it's fun and entertaining.**

* * *

I wander around the village for a while, rather aimlessly, actually. I've got nothing to do for the day, and after yesterday's little training session, I'm not entirely sure that I want to go back to Naruto for taijutsu training. So, that leaves me to run around and find something to do. In fact, I'll even count running around the village in search of something to do as stamina training.

As I pass by the cliffs on the south side of the village, I pause. _That...I know that chakra._ I hadn't noticed, but during the preliminaries, I think that I imprinted a bunch of chakra signatures into my memory. My sensing abilities still need work, a lot of it. And at this distance, it's a little hard to tell, but I just know that there's someone up there. And that's enough to pique my curiosity.

So, I face the cliffs and run towards them, focusing chakra to my feet as I kick off the ground and start running straight up the side of the cliff. It's times like this that I'm glad that I annoyed Iruka during my time at the academy. If I hadn't, climbing cliffs like this would be impossible, and I would definitely have fallen to my death by now. I almost fly up the side of the cliff, until the ledge is finally in sight, and I kick off a jutting foothold, arching through the air as I soar in a crescent, coming out over the edge of the cliff, and landing safely on the edge.

And standing there, his Sharingan activated and trained on me, is Sasuke. That makes me smirk a little. "Shouldn't you be in the hospital?"

He deactivates his Sharingan and glares slightly at me. "How did you find me?"

I shrug. "Actually, by accident. I was bored, and decided to run around the village to look for something to do. I sensed some familiar chakra up here, so I decided to run up the cliff to check it out." My smirk grows as I see how neatly pressed his clothes are. "You must not have left too long ago, I can still see the lines that the hospital irons left in your clothes."

"If you're planning on telling me to go back..." I can hear the warning in his voice, not that I seriously expect him to act on it.

"Nah, I'm not that cruel." I approach him and my smirk fades into a smile. "I know the feeling of wanting to escape from the hospital. I've done it more than enough times, myself."

His eyebrows come together in a frown. "You've been hospitalized? What about that medical ninjutsu of yours?"

His assumption almost makes me laugh. "Well, I wasn't born knowing it. In fact, I couldn't even use chakra until just before I was enrolled in the academy. I learned the medical ninjutsu later, from the medic who conducted my routine check-ups. Well, until I got out of those when we graduated. They wanted to make sure that I could...adjust to being a ninja before they went through with my graduation."

That does nothing to dispel his frown. "Why?"

Trust him to ask complicated questions with simple words. I sigh slightly. "Well, I'm sure that you already know more than enough, thanks to Kabuto." I watch his face for a reaction. It's minute, but still there. Surprise, shock, anger, hurt, and something else that I can't quite place.

But as soon as the emotions appear, they're gone once again, and his dark eyes focus intensely on me. "What happened during the preliminaries? Who else is moving on, other than us?" Of course he would remember that I'm moving on too, after all, my match was before his.

So I hold up my hands and splay out my fingers. "After Kakashi disappeared with you, Shino fought a guy named Zaku, a ninja from the Sound. I suppose that it didn't help that his arms looked like they'd been dislocated, but Shino won the match with ease." Sasuke flinches slightly upon hearing that Zaku's arms looked dislocated. _Well...I wonder if he's the reason they were so damaged..._ Considering the evil looks Zaku shot him before the matches, I wouldn't put it past Sasuke to be the culprit there. "After that, Kankuro took out the second of Kabuto's teammates, so that team got kicked out of the finals."

"I see..." He bites the inside of his cheek. "And...Kankuro...what can he do?"

"Puppets." I see no point in holding back that information. "Not that it matters, he dropped out of the finals just as they were announcing the match-ups. So you won't be going up against him." I touch the third finger on my hand. "After that match, though, Ino and Sakura had it out. It was a tie, so neither of them are moving on to the next round."

Sasuke nods slightly. "I wasn't honestly expecting Sakura to make it past the preliminaries. She's...too naive and soft."

I cringe slightly. "Ouch, that's a bit harsh." _Then again...I though basically the same thing._ "Anyway. The next two matches didn't take too long. Temari, the girl from the Sand, went up against Neji and Lee's teammate, Tenten. Temari won. She uses wind style jutsu, mostly through the use of the giant fan she carries around with her. And the match after that, Shikamaru took out Kin, the girl from the Sound."

"Shikamaru took out one of the Sound ninja?" Sasuke looks at me disbelievingly. "That's hard to believe."

"He outsmarted her." I wave my hands around slightly. "He maneuvered her around, caught her with his shadow, then had the two of them throw shuriken at each other, which he then proceeded to dodge by leaning backwards. She hit her head on the wall, probably got a concussion."

"Hn. Makes sense." Sasuke gestures for me to go on speaking, so I move back to my first finger, turning my hand around.

"So...next up was Naruto's match with Kiba." I smirk at the uncertain look on Sasuke's face. "I think I was the only one who believed in Naruto the whole time. Oh, and thanks to him and those shadow clones of his, I've got a dinner date with Kiba that I should collect on. Especially since he's buying dessert as well."

Sasuke scrunches his nose up a little. "With Dog-Breath?"

I smirk at his expression. "Why, are you jealous?"

"No." He snaps at me irritably. "It's just...gross."

I pout a little, since I was hoping for a stronger reaction. It's hilarious to see the ever-stoic Sasuke Uchiha actually displaying emotion. "Alright...anyway, moving on." I move to the next finger. "After that was Hinata and Neji's match." My gaze grows rather cold at the memory. "Neji won, obviously. And he nearly killed Hinata doing it. Luckily, I managed to get down there and perform first aid while we waited for the medics." I shiver slightly. "Even though it was the second time...I don't think I'll ever get used to having someone's life in my hands."

Sasuke stays mercifully quiet for a moment, before asking his next question. "Do you have any information on Hyuga?"

That question actually makes me smile, rather viciously in fact. "You don't need to know that, he won't be around long enough to fight you." I grin widely at him. "Naruto is his first round opponent."

Sasuke's eyes widen considerably. "The dobe is fighting the Hyuga?"

"Yeah, and he's going to blow Neji out of the water." I'm never going to let my confidence in Naruto's ability to exact justice waver. "So, let's move on to the one you'll be fighting in the first round. Because the match after that was between Gaara and Rock Lee."

Sasuke's eyes may have been wide a moment ago, but now they narrow dramatically. "Which one am I fighting?"

"Gaara..." I grit my teeth at the memory of his fight with Lee. "It was...a really hard match to watch. the two of them fought really hard. Even Lee's trump card wasn't able to put Gaara down." I grab onto Sasuke's arm and pull him close to me, bringing us face to face. "Do not underestimate Gaara. I saw him throw Lee around like it was nothing. And even after pulling out all of the stops, Lee had his left arm and leg crushed beyond recovery. He..." I swallow nervously. "I don't think that he'll recover enough on his own to return to active duty." I release Sasuke's arm and move to back away.

What I don't account for is the hold that he has on my arm. "Tell me, how did Gaara fight?"

I don't bother tugging on my arm, I simply allow it to go slack. "His sand protects him all by itself, and it's pretty fast, but not fast enough to keep up with Lee's full speed. It turned out that Lee was wearing ankle weights to slow himself down, and when he took them off, he was barely even a blur. Beyond that, once Lee got past the initial defense, Gaara can wear a layer of sand as armor. So you're going to have to fight through two layers of sand if you want to get to him."

Sasuke nods and releases my arm, before crossing his own. "Alright, there are two more spots in the finals, right? Who else is moving on?"

"Who do you think?" I smirk brightly, wiping away the images from Lee and Gaara's match. "The last two match-ups were Akito and that mummified Sound ninja, and Hiro against Chouji."

Sasuke studies my face for a moment. "I take it your teammates are also moving on?"

I nod happily. "We're the only full team moving on to the finals." Then, I sober up. "But...chances are that you won't get to fight either of them. Because you and Naruto are going to have to fight it out in the first block, while me and my teammates fight it out with Shino, Shikamaru, and Temari in the second block. Which means that if you move on and beat Naruto...you might end up fighting me."

His eyes flash with something along the lines of amusement. "You seem very confident that you'll win."

I shrug slightly. "I'm just not planning on losing, not even to my own teammates." Then I wave my hand dismissively. "Plus, I doubt that Shikamaru is going to get far. Even if he can win a match, I doubt he'll put in the effort needed to fight through the finals. He'd rather go to sleep while watching the clouds roll by."

"That's...fair." Sasuke doesn't seem to want to challenge me on that assessment, likely because he agrees with it. "Is there anything else I should know about the finals?"

I tap my finger to my lip, thinking hard. "Well, I suppose that I should tell you that Naruto's match against Neji is the first one, then it's your's against Gaara. After you, I'm up to fight Akito, Shikamaru is fighting Temari after that, and Hiro is up last against Shino. So...assuming that you and Naruto win your matches, and that Shikamaru drops his match, and that my prediction that Hiro will manage to win over Shino, then the second round will be you against Naruto, and then Hiro against Temari. Then, whoever wins between Hiro and Temari will go up against me, unless Akito pulls something serious over on me. And after that..." Well, I'm fairly certain that if I can keep my distance, I can overpower Hiro with my wind style, and if it comes down to a battle with Temari or Shino instead, a fire style battle should put either of them down fairly quickly. "Well, if everything goes according to my calculations, I should be able to make it to the finals to fight either you or Naruto." Because even though I know that I have extra power to draw on that others don't, I'm not entirely sure how a match between Sasuke and Naruto would end.

"Hn, as if I would lose to that dobe." He says that, and yet, I can almost feel his excitement at the prospect of fighting Naruto in an all-out match. _Boys...always so competitive._

"Anyway, that's the gist of it. For all I know, Akito might pull the same stunt with lightning that he did during the preliminaries, and he might make it to the finals instead of me." I might as well let him know what the other scenario might be. "If he draws me into a battle that focuses on taijutsu, I'm definitely a goner." Well, maybe not, if I can hit something important, I could put him down in an instant. Though I would rather not use something like that on my teammate.

So far, all of my calculations have factored in the simple fact that I have an extra reserve of chakra that most of the other competitors just don't have. Not that I'm planning on using it, it's just that it's there, and no one but Naruto knows about it. _Though actually..._

I tilt my head and bite my lip, trying to decide whether or not I should ask. _Ah, screw it._ "What...did you see when you turned your Sharingan on me?"

Now, Sasuke really frowns in confusion. "What did I...see? What do you mean?"

"I mean..." It's hard to decide what words to use. "The...fluctuations in my chakra. Did you see anything...unusual about them?"

His frown deepens, before he closes his eyes, and the muscles of his face relax. He takes a deep breath, and when his eyes next open, his eyes display the familiar red of the Sharingan. His eyes travel down slowly, all the way to my feet, before coming back up and focusing on my stomach. And now, he frowns once more. "What...is that? It's like..." He tilts his head, as though trying to get a better look at me. "You honestly look like...vanilla ice cream, with a blood orange stuffed in the middle."

That has to be the weirdest description I've ever heard. "Sasuke, is Naruto rubbing off on you? You never compare things to food."

He growls irritably, and his Sharingan flicks over me again. "Fine, then how about a sunset in the middle of a blizzard? I don't know, it's just a big flash of orange and red in the middle of a bunch of white."

 _Well, I guess he didn't know before. Oops._ I hadn't meant to give that away, I just thought that he saw it already. I guess that means that he never really took a good look at my chakra patterns before. "Nevermind, it's not important. I was just curious is all."

There's a look on his face that tells me quite clearly that he doesn't believe me. "Chakra? Then why does it look white?"

"I don't know." And honestly, I don't. "It's just always been like that, ever since I first developed my chakra. I thought that you'd already seen it, that's all."

He raises a hand to his eyes, frowning again. "That means...I need to develop it further." He seems upset with himself for not getting a clear picture. But rather than trying again, he allows the Sharingan to fade.

But as it fades, I notice the same problem as last time, though to a lesser extent. The muscles around his eyes look swollen. "Hm...seems that you still need practice with your Sharingan."

"What!?" He growls at me, not liking the way that might have come across as an insult.

"That's not what I meant." I reach up to the top of his head, which is rather hard since he has several inches on me. But on my tiptoes, I manage to push his head down enough for me to plant a kiss on his forehead, discharging a burst of chakra right between his eyes.

But as soon as the chakra flies through his system, he pulls back, nearly knocking me off balance with how quickly he pulls away. "What the hell was that!?" He touches his forehead and scowls at me. "What's with you and kissing my forehead!?"

I blink at him, confused. Then it dawns on me that I still haven't explained it to him yet. "Healing ninjutsu. You saw me breathe all that fire during my match, right?" He nods warily. "Well, I find it easy to send quick bursts of chakra through my mouth, rather then building it up for sustained strikes from my fingertips. The Sharingan has been making your eyes swell up, so I injected the chakra to deal with that problem. Though I hypothesize that with more experience, your eyes will swell up less and less. Like pushing too hard when learning to use your muscles. Eventually it gets easier, but you're still going through the growing pains. I'm just making it less painful."

He blinks at me suspiciously, but eventually appears to take my words for what they are, the truth. "Hn, fine." And that's likely as close to a thank you as I'll get from him. Then, he looks down at me with a rather different expression. "You're...really small."

And that throws my good mood out the window. "Thank you for noticing. I guess I can't grow as fast as a giant like you!" If I had to guess, I'd say he's about ten centimeters taller than me, or four inches. And that's rather aggravating, to say the least.

That puts a smirk right back on his face. "It's actually rather impressive, that there's someone even shorter than the dobe."

Just as I'm about to deck him a good one for that crack and wipe that stupid smirk off his face, I stop short as muffled sound reaches my ears. _What...?_ Sasuke, are you supposed to be meeting anyone up here?"

He blinks, a little confused. "Kakashi, why? He trains up here sometimes, so I thought I'd wait for him."

I tilt my head to the side as a crash echoes in the distance. "Well, sounds like Kakashi's here." There's no way an enemy would be that noisy.

"Yeah...he's late, again. I was expecting him to show up before you surprised me." Sasuke grumbles slightly, but walks over towards the edge of the cliff anyway. As Kakashi pulls himself up to the ledge, Sasuke looks over it, frowning. "What's up?"

"So, you finally showed up." Kakashi pulls himself the rest of the way up, revealing that one of his arms is tied behind his back. Then, he catches sight of me as well. "Ciara? What are you doing here?"

I wave my hand dismissively. "I ended up here by accident. I was wandering around, bored out of my mind, and ended up here by following Sasuke's chakra. Though I didn't know it was his until I got up here. I just knew that it was a signature I recognized."

"I see..." He scrutinizes me carefully. "And just what have you two been doing up here?"

"I was updating him on everything that happened during the preliminaries." I stare back at his one visible eye fearlessly. "After all, he did miss seeing all the matches but mine, so I figured that he should know what he's getting himself into for the final round. The rest of us do."

"I suppose that's fair." Kakashi smiles at me from behind his mask. "Thank you, Ciara. And how is Naruto doing?"

I groan slightly at the memory of his training. "Let's just say that he's putting all of that energy of his to good use." Then I shake my head. "And I am never asking him to help me with taijutsu training ever again...I learned my lesson yesterday."

"Hm...that's right...you never were one to favor taijutsu..." Kakashi stares at me, as though making a million plans in his head, and then choosing one. "But you're very fast, aren't you?"

"Yes...?" I suppose that speed is certainly my most redeeming factor in physical altercations. "But what good is that if I'm too small to actually do any serious physical damage." I glare briefly at Sasuke. "Because as I'm sure people have noticed, I'm 'really small'."

Kakashi's gaze flicks back and forth from me to Sasuke. "Well...it seems that the two of you talked about more than just the finals." He claps his hands. "Anyway, what I was getting at is that I'm planning on doing some taijutsu training with Sasuke, because something I've got in mind for him is going to require a lot of speed. Speed that he just doesn't have yet."

Now, I see where he's going with this. "And you think that I can help him work on that speed?"

Kakashi nods. "Exactly. And...if you were to agree..." He lets that hang in the air for a moment. "I might be able to pass on a few taijutsu lessons that could help you out, despite your...small size."

While I'm tempted to deck both of them, not that it would really do any damage, I have to admit that the offer intrigues me. "And the terms of this arrangement?"

"You come up here every other day for the next three weeks, and I'll help you with your taijutsu, you'll help Sasuke get a head start with his speed before we move on to the more difficult parts, and then, I might see about pitting the two of you against each other for some more practical exercizes." His smile widens, I just know it. "After all, we've proven more than once that Sasuke learns well when he's got competition."

He's clearly referring to the tree training while we were in the Land of Waves. He and Naruto worked themselves almost to the death while competing against each other. But I have to admit that it was very effective. And when weighing my options, this would certainly be a good chance to remove, or at least lessen one of my biggest weaknesses. After all, I've got more than enough ninjutsu to keep my opponents on their toes already. And this is certainly something that Akito will not see coming. And from the looks of it, Sasuke isn't going to put up a fuss. _He must really want to beat Naruto and Gaara..._

"Alright, I'm in."


	40. Training Gets Complicated

**It's funny, I keep second guessing myself on the interactions between Ciara and the other characters, because I really want to set up a few really solid relationships (minus any and all later evolution), but so far, they're getting some good responses.**

 **Just wait until Gaara does a heel-face turn, that's going to be an interesting relationship to develop.**

 **Oh, and just a warning in advance, I'm planning on making the next chapter kind of creepy. I wonder if anyone can guess who or why that will be...**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

"But Ciara...what do you mean you aren't coming today!?" Naruto pouts in front of me. And those big blue puppy eyes might have worked, if I wasn't so used to him using them whenever he wants his way. It's probably thanks to my exposure to him that I can resist them as well as I do.

I shake my head and put my hands on my hips. "Naruto, I was there all day yesterday with you. I gave you as many pointers as I could about focusing your chakra. You just need to practice without me for a day, and then I'll hang around with you tomorrow and give you more pointers, based on if you've made any improvements. Okay?" I'll give him a little bit of a compromise, but I really just can't spend today with him.

Because today, I'll be giving pointers to his teammate.

Naruto's pout lessens slightly, but doesn't disappear. "You promise?"

"Yeah, I promise." And I know exactly how seriously Naruto takes promises. It means that I absolutely must show up tomorrow. Not like I was planning on not showing up.

Leaving Naruto behind at the apartments, I make the trek towards the cliffs, stopping by Ichiraku briefly to grab some breakfast. I blame Naruto for the early morning ramen cravings. He and I have had ramen for breakfast enough times that by now, I don't mind it at all. I still grab some fruit to stuff into my bag just in case I get hungry later, and just for a little extra burst of energy, I shove a peach into my mouth.

Using chakra, I walk straight up the side of the cliff, leisurely strolling along as I munch on my peach. I'm not really expecting Kakashi to show up for a couple more hours, but knowing Sasuke, he probably wants to get training as soon as possible. He might even be there already. I hate getting up this early, but thanks to Naruto the early bird, I'm getting used to it.

I pull myself over the ledge of the cliff, spitting the peach pit out of my mouth, letting it fall over the side of the cliff and towards the ground. Then, I stand up and stretch my arms towards the sky. _One of these days...I really need to sleep in._

"You're here obscenely early." Snark fills a familiar voice behind me.

But the snark makes me smile. "I blame Naruto for that. He's the early bird, not me." I yawn pointedly as I turn to face Sasuke. "If I had my way, I'd sleep till at least ten every morning."

He grimaces slightly. "The finals are in less than a month, so there's no time to lie around sleeping."

"True." I suppose it's bet to humor him a little. "But there's always training at night. Out this far, it's not like you'd wake anyone up if you decided to just stay up late and sleep in more. Besides, there's a certain someone who is perpetually late, so I doubt that it would change anything."

"You could always take your own advice." He hardly looks impressed by that rather simple suggestion.

I take a few seconds to think about it, before I shake my head. "Nah, if I did that, Naruto would still wake me up early anyway. Though at least he comes through the front door now, instead of through the window. And I do get a break from it whenever you guys have a mission. Well, usually."

Sasuke looks...rather scandalized actually. "You let that idiot just walk into your apartment?"

"Uh...yes?" I'm not entirely sure why that's supposed to be surprising. "We traded spare keys." But it's not like he needs to know why Naruto and I have each other's spare key.

He blinks, but seems to decide that he doesn't want to know the reason for the trading of apartment keys. "We don't have to wait for Kakashi. I was about to get started before you showed up."

"Oh, good." I unhook my bag and set it down carefully, since I'd rather not squish any of the peaches inside. "Alright, so Kakashi talked about me helping you ramp up your speed, right? By that, I'm going to take a guess that he's talking about the kind of speed that involves both feet being on the ground, instead of that fun little teleportation move that the jounin seem to like." I seem to remember Shi-Shi being rather good at that. "So, start running, and I'll tell you the first things that pop to mind."

He frowns at me, clearly not liking the fact that I'm barking orders at him. But he swallows down whatever rebuttal he was going to offer and sinks down a little, before taking off to run circles around me. I have to admit that he's pretty fast, but looking at his form, there's so much that could be improved. If he were to drop his hips a little, it would allow him to lengthen his strides without losing his current tempo. In fact, it might actually increase his tempo, if he can readjust his balance properly. The way he's running right now, he's not using his muscles to their fullest extent. Not that he isn't making good use of them, he's certainly got some speed to him, but in each little movement, I can see places where it could be altered to work better.

"Alright, stop!" I wave my hand and call for him to stop running literal circles around me. And as he comes to a rather abrupt stop, I walk up to him and start poking at his thighs and hips. "Okay, so one of the ways that you lost some speed was by bobbing up and down a little. Granted, you don't do it too much, but if you can eliminate it completely, it should allow you to cover an extra..." I look down and use my eyes to measure his maximum potential stride. "Maybe...fifteen to twenty percent of the distance you're currently covering. So to do that, you need to drop your hips about three more inches when you run. It will also let you put more weight onto the ball of your foot without losing your balance."

He silently adjusts his stance, sinking lower than before, and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, testing his balance. Then, he sinks an extra inch, and the rocking becomes a little smoother. I nod approvingly. _Good, he's adjusting himself. Without properly weighing and measuring him, there's only so close I can estimate. So he'll have to make all of the final adjustments himself._

Still, he might need another little push. "Here, how about you turn that Sharingan of yours on, and I'll do some running around. I'm smaller than you are, so my center of gravity will be different from yours. But I'm sure that you can do the conversions in your head."

Tapping my feet on the ground, I sink down low, so that I'm at half my usual height. Then, I take off like a flying shuriken and race across the ground, my footsteps light, but more than capable of carrying me like a summer breeze. After I feel that he's gotten a sufficient view of me running in circles, I flick my eyes to each of the jagged rock faces jutting out of the ground, and I bend my legs until they nearly touch the ground.

I jump like a grasshopper, flying through the air as chakra bounces me from one rock to the next. I spin and twist through the air, making good use of my tiny, agile body. I'm not expecting Sasuke to just be able to develop my level of flexibility before the finals, but if he gets a good idea as to how the human body can bend, then maybe I can coax him into doing a couple of hours of flexibility exercises a day.

Skidding to a stop next to Sasuke, I look up at him and tilt my head. "So, did you catch all of that, or do I need to run through it again?"

"Of course I caught it." He glowers at me slightly. "Now what?"

"Now..." I grin excitedly. "We play a nice little game of tag."

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

Two hours of on and off games of tag wasn't quite what I was expecting for speed training. Granted, it's effective, I'll give her that. But it would be more effective if she could keep going for more than fifteen minutes at a time. We've only run around four times, and I'm still bursting with energy. I'm also getting a lot more used to the kind of agility she employs, though I'm not entirely satisfied with my own performance yet.

Nevertheless, she sits down next to her bag, panting slightly as she pulls a peach from within. "Want one?" She holds it up for my perusal.

I shake my head. "I don't like sweet things."

"Oh really?" She smirks, then tosses me the peach. "Try it." Then, she pulls another from her bag and bites into it, letting the juices trickle slowly down her chin.

I stare at the peach, before hesitantly taking a bite. And the first thing I notice is that it's not actually very sweet. I swallow the bite of fruit and frown at her. "You like your fruit on the sour side?"

"Yep." She nods, taking another bite out of her peach. "And I like the texture of peaches and plums, though I've never really been fond of apples or oranges."

While I'm not entirely sure what to do with that information, I might as well file it away for later. If anyone tries to impersonate her and starts eating oranges or apples, I suppose that it would be a fast way to figure it out.

"You like tomatoes, right?"

I look back over at her suspiciously. "Yeah...how did you know?"

"You're kidding, right?" She looks at me like I have to be joking. "Okay, this should be obvious, but I'll spell it out for you. Now, who has been glaring at you ever since I can remember?"

 _What does that have to do with anything?_ "Naruto." It's something of an understatement, since he's done a whole lot more than just glare.

"Correct. And who just so happens to be my best friend?" She looks at me expectantly.

"...Naruto." Though I still don't see how her best friend glaring at me would tell her what my favorite food is.

"Exactly. So since Naruto is always really fixated on you, I would often end up catching you in my crosshairs while looking out for him." She takes one last bite out of her peach before tossing the bare pit aside. "With that in mind, it wasn't hard to notice a few of your habits, including your death glare, your liking for monosyllabic answers, your general dislike for the girls around you, despite a rumor going around about your preference for long-haired girls, and the fact that tomatoes often featured prominently in your lunchbox."

That's...actually a lot of observations she's made. But there's one in particular that makes me scoff. "Those girls from the academy are a bunch of stupid fans. They know nothing about me."

"Oh?" She raises an eyebrow slightly. "So what does that make me?"

My eye twitches slightly as my mouth curves into a smirk. "Someone I'm looking forward to knocking down a peg or two in the finals."

A viciously smug smirk crosses her face, an expression I didn't think she was actually capable of. "Just one of the guys, huh? I suppose that beats crazy fangirl any day." She gets back on her feet and stretches out her muscles, however thin they seem to be.

Although, looking at her, she certainly has a slim form. Then again, she's almost a year younger than most of our graduating class, so it's not so surprising that her body isn't as developed. But, as I have no idea what her parents looked like, I have no clue if she's going to grow much, or if she's going to stay on the small side. Because if she ever wants to do well in taijutsu, she's definitely going to need one hell of a growth spurt. Right now, she just doesn't have the body mass needed to put serious force behind a physical blow. She would need to use chakra infused attacks at the very least.

Now that she's back on her feet, she grins at me, which sets off a few warning bells. "You ready to loosen up those joints of yours?"

"Loosen up my joints?" I really don't like where this is going.

"Yeah!" She cracks her knuckles and points down at the ground. "Sit. We're going to do some yoga."

"...What?"

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

If I thought that the look on his face when I told him that we were going to do yoga was funny, then the face he's making now while trying to stare at me from between his legs, bent all the way backwards until he's twisted almost in a circle, is downright hilarious.

I, on the other hand, am feeling fairly relaxed. My feet are planted firmly on the ground, but I'm so bent around that I can actually rest my elbows on the ground and rest my chin in my hands. Meanwhile, Sasuke struggles to get even halfway into my position. _Ah...I may not have a prayer of a hope that I could beat him in taijutsu, but I'm definitely more flexible than he is._

Sasuke growls in frustration. "The human body is not supposed to bend this way."

"No, it's not." I grin at him evilly. "But it can, and I am. So suck it up and focus."

Sasuke glares quite impressively at me, but a rather joyful voice cuts him off before he can say a word. "Well, isn't this an interesting way to get training started..."

I glance over to the left, where Kakashi is sitting on a rock, a book in his hand. "You were taking a while, so we played some tag, then started some yoga." I press my hands to the ground and rock slightly, lifting myself up on my hands and righting myself with a handspring. I dust off my clothes as Sasuke rolls over, getting himself out of what looked like a rather uncomfortable position. "So, what now?" I'm rather curious to see how this day is going to go."

"Well..." Kakashi closes his book and sets it down on his knee. "From what I've seen and heard about you, your biggest problem right now is your stamina. You tire too quickly."

Although his comment hits the mark, I still grumble a little about it. "Well, if you're comparing me to Naruto, then yeah. But he can go forever without taking a break, so it's not fair to compare anyone to him."

"That's true..." Kakashi turns his gaze directly on me, and it almost feels like his Sharingan is looking as well. "But you still need a lot of improvement in the stamina department. If there comes a time when your run out of chakra, you won't be able to rely on your ninjutsu to save you."

I try not to laugh at the thought of running out of chakra. then again, it's not like Kakashi knows that there's a huge chakra demon sealed away in my stomach. "Okay...so do you have any suggestions on how to fix that?"

"Hm...well, apart from hitting puberty..." He looks at me pointedly. "Running laps without using any chakra, and slowly increasing the time you spend running from there. Or sparring sessions that just get longer and longer. But..."

"Puberty." I get the gist of what he's saying. "My body needs to grow because I don't have the physical strength to make effective use of taijutsu yet."

"Exactly." He nods slowly. "Of course, all that time you spent in the hospital didn't really do anything for your stamina, so you're at least a couple of years behind in that department."

While I'd love to argue the point, he's right. Without the extra help I get from my little friend, I wouldn't have the physical strength to carry out a lengthy battle. That said, I don't want to just wait around for my body to catch up to my skill level. And I still need that taijutsu training.

"So, what do you suggest?" I have a feeling that he's got something in mind, and at this point, I'm ready to try almost, though not quite, anything.

He smiles crookedly from behind his mask. "Well, you two played tag earlier to work on Sasuke's speed, right?" With a nod from the two of us, Kakashi continues. "Consider this to be a slightly more extreme version of that. Now, shall we begin?"

* * *

If I had known that Kakashi was planning on having Sasuke almost try to kill me, I probably would have rethought his offer of training. The one good thing about it is that I was able to outrun him for the most part, so injuries were kept to a minimum. At least until my stamina ran out, and Sasuke sent me flying about thirty feet. That's definitely going to leave bruises for a couple of days.

"Okay...I'm done..." I barely have the energy required to lift my head from the ground. _Ugh, how can Naruto have even more stamina than Sasuke? I feel like I'm going to die..._ I can't answer the question, even though I've known Naruto for years. And I know bloody well that it's not because of the fox.

Kakashi leans over me, smiling down at me. "I think that was a good start for today. I guess that means that tomorrow, you'll be with Naruto?"

I nod weakly. "Yeah...helping with his training is going to be a lot easier...and less painful." Then, I get a sense of a rather smug aura, and I lift my head up enough to glare at Sasuke, who is smirking at me yet again. "Shut up."

"Hn." His face twitches with amusement. "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to." I glare at him irritably. "That stupid smirk of yours says more than anything a monosyllable conveys. So lose it, before I smack it off your face."

"As if you could." He looks down at me smugly. "You can't even move right now, so I think I'll take a raincheck, Fairy."

My eye twitches almost shut. "What did you just call me?"

His smug expression and smirk grow into a rare but full-blown evil grin. "What's wrong, Fairy? I think it fits. You're small and dainty and flutter through the air like a little fairy."

Now, most girls might think that being called a fairy is cute. But my family wasn't known for producing fairies. Ours had more of a...draconic temperament. "Call me a fairy one more time, and exhausted or not, I will put you on the ground."

"Alright, easy now." Kakashi holds out his hands in an attempt to stop an impending war from breaking out. "Sasuke, if you've finished trying to rile her up, I'll go ahead and take her home." He crouches down next to me and carefully maneuvers me onto his back.

Once my bag is securely in his grip, and I'm at no risk of falling off his back, Kakashi starts making his way back down the cliffs and towards the village. But I'm still seething a little over that ridiculous nickname. "I am not a fairy."

"You know that Sasuke was just trying to get under your skin..." I can almost see the exasperation on Kakashi's face, because I can certainly hear it in his voice. "Don't take it too personally."

My arms around his neck tighten a little as the tease flits through my head. "One day, people will call me a dragon..."

Kakashi goes completely silent for a moment, before humming softly. "I'm sure they will..."


	41. Powerful and Unwanted Interest

**Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! (Or, at least those in Canada, or other countries who are holding Thanksgiving this weekend, and to those that actually celebrate it, or use it as an excuse not to do homework). I hope that this update makes your day better!**

 **So...first of all, I feel as though I owe you all an explanation for the "Fairy" crack. I mostly came up with it because typically fairies are viewed as...small, dainty, delicate, and not at all threatening, though perhaps amusing in their attempts to be. So unless you're in Fairy Tail (where the "Fairies" are more than capable of wreaking mass destruction), fairies are not something you really want to be called if you're trying to gain respect as a ninja.**

 **I also decided that it's about time I start dropping bits and pieces here and there about Ciara's family history. I.e. Bloodline abilities that he inherited from her father (but that are far from fully developed yet). It's going to be a long and painful process for her (and I mean literally painful, like growing pains on steroids).**

 **Okay, so like I warned you guys in the last chapter, I'm going to try and make this one a little creepy. Because there's nothing creepier than a couple of obsessed stalkers. And I think you know who I'm talking about.**

* * *

I'm not entirely sure what inspired it, but to offset Naruto's frustration about not being able to summon much more than a tadpole with legs, he decided that it would be a great idea to teach me his signature jutsu. How to make shadow clones. It's been my ninth attempt of the evening, and third session this week, but I've managed to produce eight successful shadow clones, as I've been trying to increase the number by one each time I succeed in beating the last record.

I can't imagine how Naruto managed to learn this all on his own, because it's definitely not as easy as the intangible clones we had to make for our graduation exam. And I know that since I have nowhere near his level of stamina, there's no way that I'll be able to use it the way he does. Maybe make a few clones to run around and collect information, but I'd have to seriously limit the number if I ever decide to use them in a combat situation.

As the clones disappear, I sink to my knees, breathing hard. _Damn it, Naruto...how the hell can you make a hundred of them like its nothing? Regular clones are one thing, but shadow clones..._ And as though to answer my question, Naruto pats me on the back. "That was awesome!"

"Not as awesome as your hundred shadow clones at once..." Next to that, my accomplishment is fairly minuscule. "Seriously...I know that you've got stamina and chakra, but damn..." I feel like I'm going to pass out right about now. "I...think I'm going to call it quits for the day."

"Already?" He blinks at me confusedly as I stumble to my feet. "Okay, I guess we can-"

"No, no, it's fine." I wave my hand to stop him right there. "You stay here and keep training. I'm more than capable of getting home on my own." There's no reason for him to stop training on my account, especially since he can go hours longer than I can. "Good luck with the toads!" I wave goodbye as I head back towards our our apartments.

Now, I think I'm really starting to see the point of Gramps giving us a month to ourselves to improve our abilities. If everyone is training this hard, then we're going to see some seriously crazy shit when we get to the final rounds. And I'm shivering in anticipation just thinking about it. It's going to be fun.

But since my muscles are currently aching, it's best for me to take a leisurely walk home, rather than try to make it there as quickly as I can. And fortunately, with the sun setting and the stars starting to peek out, the view is wonderful as I walk through the village.

Not far from me, a street lamp starts to flicker, and I narrow my eyes. _If this were a mystery novel...this would be about the time that someone gets accosted or kidnapped._ I glance around suspiciously, relaxing when I see nothing. _Nothing to worry about, just a brief bout of paranoia._ There's nothing that will stop me from getting home. And even sore from a day of training, I'm still confident enough in my ninjutsu skills that I'm sure I could roast anyone who tried anything.

"And what is a little thing like you doing, walking alone at night?" I mentally groan at the sound of an older man's voice. _Great...I should have known that there would be a pervert. The one night that I don't have either Naruto or Kakashi escorting me home..._ Ever since taking me home the first day, Kakashi has insisted on walking me home whenever I'm not with Naruto.

I turn around to face whoever this old pervert is and give him a piece of my mind. "Now listen here. If you think that I'm just going to let you do whatever the hell you're thinking of doing, you've got another thing coming." I look up into the pale face of the man who so stupidly decided to follow me. His black hair falls in curtains around his face, and yellow, slitted eyes peek out from snow white skin, accented with purple markings around his eyes. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

 _Careful, chick, this man is dangerous._ For Suzaku to issue me a warning out of the blue means that this is someone that I had better take very seriously.

The man tilts his head, his eyes moving up and down, examining me as though I'm nothing but a scrumptious dessert that he would love to gobble up. "And here I thought the clan of dragons had gone extinct. It seems that Sensei hid you well."

As soon as he said the words 'clan of dragons', I back up, moving into a defensive position. "And what do you want with me?" Obviously he wants something, or he wouldn't be looking at me with those hungry eyes.

Then, I make the mistake of looking deep into his eyes, and it feels like I can't move. _Paralysis? It's not genjutsu..._ But there's nothing I can do to stop him as his hand reaches for my chin. He grasps it softly, and turns my head to the left, then the right, as though examining me. "Such a young one...it'll be a few years before you've grown into your full power. It will be most interesting to see you in three or four years." Then, his mouth curls into a vicious smile. "And a demon's vessel as well. You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

 _You haven't seen anything yet!_ Suzaku's strength flows through me, something I've been slowly getting better and better at summoning on my own the last couple of weeks. My eyes flash with heat, and a burst of chakra surges through my body, dispelling whatever paralysis he was using to hold me. And as though by instinct, fire blazes around me, seeping right out of my skin.

He's forced to release me and take a few steps back, but the smile doesn't leave his face. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to have you as well...you both have so much potential. But...I think that taking the both of you might just be biting off a little more than I can chew. No matter how delicious it might be." He steps back, his legs the first things to disappear. "Goodbye, little demon. We'll meet again, soon enough." With ever word, more of him disappears, until there's nothing left.

The feeling of his fingers lingers on my skin, and it makes me feel clammy and gross. My earlier shaking has intensified, and this time, it's neither excitement, nor anticipation. It's fear.

 _I...really need to take a hot shower._

* * *

Last night was honestly the creepiest situation I've ever been in. Whoever that pale man was, he haunted my dreams all night long, and I barely got more than a couple of hours of sleep. And what makes it worse is that I'm not sure if I prefer these new nightmares, with him coming out of the darkness, to the recurring nightmares that feature Yagura in an obscene amount of pain. They're both causing me to lose a lot of sleep.

And that's why I find myself up on the cliffs at the crack of dawn, where I'm sure that I'll be waiting a couple of hours for Sasuke to show up, and a couple more before Kakashi finally meanders in. Even when he's supposed to be training Sasuke, the man can't be on time to save his life. One of these days, it's really going to come back to bite him in the ass. _Though...it might be funny to see one of those dogs of his do the biting instead..._

So, since I've got quite a bit of time on my hands, I might as well get warmed up for the day. I'm sure that Sasuke won't be upset if I start the yoga without him, I can do it for hours longer than he can. And besides, it's perfectly appropriate to be doing sun salutations as the sun is rising. Doing them in the middle of the day is just weird.

So, I bend myself over on my hands and knees, beginning yet another morning by contorting my body into all the positions that Sasuke still seems to believe a human body shouldn't be able to bend itself into. That boy simply has no imagination. After all, if you fight like I do, using speed instead of pure power, you have to get creative with your strikes. Not that I wouldn't mind some pure power, that's what all the running around up here is for.

About an hour later, as the colors start to disappear from the sky, leaving a soft blue above the village, a pair of footsteps approaches me. I'm about halfway through the first set or morning exercises, and I'm currently bent half upside down, with my feet pointing towards my forehead.

"You're getting started rather early, Fairy." I'd never thought before this summer that being called a fairy would make me want to commit such violent homicide.

I unbend myself slowly, and once I look significantly less like a pretzel, I turn around to glare into the pair of onyx eyes that seem so intent on driving me insane. "You'd better stop calling me that soon, because I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to resist burying you a hundred feet underground."

"Hn." He smirks once more, and I have to mentally count to ten to stop myself from smacking him in the face. Even if my taijutsu sucks, getting punched in the face by me isn't going to be pleasant.

"And while I appreciate you using more complete sentences with me, I still hate those stupid 'hn's of yours. Stop it, they're dumb." My remark gets him glaring at me, which isn't unusual, since I'm getting pretty good at picking up on all the ways to make him mad. I'd call this a mutual love of antagonizing each other. Maybe I'm hanging around him and Naruto too much. _No, I'm definitely hanging around them too much if I'm picking up on their little feud..._

Despite the glare he's shooting me, he twists himself upside down without needing to be told, clearly focused on staying relaxed so that he doesn't pull anything, and so that the blood doesn't all rush to his head at once. He found that out the hard way the first time, and it was rather amusing to see him try to catch his breath and make the world stop spinning.

I join him once more in the exercises, noting that his form has improved drastically over the last couple of weeks. It's actually something of a shame that in a week or so, we won't be able to do this anymore. It's clearly doing him a world of good, and it's actually rather nice to have someone to do yoga with. Naruto never sits still long enough to get through more than about five movements without getting bored. And he's not very flexible either. _I wonder if Sasuke does some yoga at home now...?_ It would certainly explain how he's gotten so good at it this quickly. It usually takes months to ease into the level of flexibility that he's attained so far. Of course, I've been doing this for years, so it's not really fair to compare.

Despite the awkward positioning, Sasuke frowns at me confusedly."Why do I smell pomegranates?"

I blink twice, then my cheeks heat up. "Oh, right, that's my shampoo." I'd forgotten that I'd emptied half a bottle of it on myself last night, trying to scrub all traces of that creepy old man's presence off of me. "Don't mind it, it'll disappear once we work up a sweat." He nods slightly and doesn't comment further. Though I make a note not to use so much in the future. I don't need people smelling me before they see me. That might just get me killed.

We flow through the positions fluidly, and unlike the first session, Sasuke doesn't drop during a single one of them. It was actually rather amusing to see him smack his head a few times. Well, except for the possibility of his getting a concussion. But with a medic on the scene, he made it through ever bump without permanent damage.

And an hour later, after twisting in every direction possible, yoga time is over and it's time to get back to work on this mysterious new technique that Kakashi is teaching to Sasuke. And at this point, I might as well ask. "So...what has Kakashi been teaching you, anyway?"

Sasuke frowns at me slightly. "Why would I tell you? You're part of the competition."

I roll my eyes and shake my head. "Well, considering that in the event that you and I get to fight, you'll have had to fight Gaara, and then Naruto. Whatever you don't use against Gaara, you'll probably have to use against Naruto. So unless you think that you can fight your way through both of them without using it, I'm going to see it."

He pauses for a moment, then seems to agree with me. "You'll see when Kakashi gets here."

"...fair enough." If it's special enough that Kakashi is teaching it to him on the days that I'm not here, then it must be something pretty different. Though, I suppose that I could throw Sasuke something of a bone. "Naruto's been teaching me something too."

Now that gets a look of pure disbelief from Sasuke. "The dobe is...teaching you?"

"Yep." I dance away from him a little, a cheeky smile on my face. "Wanna see?" I take the raised eyebrow as a yes, and I press my hands together eagerly. And with a puff of smoke, there are suddenly three of me. "See? Cool, isn't it? I've managed to get up to making eight of them in one go." As the clones disappear, Sasuke's eyes widen slightly. I press a finger to my lips and grin. "Don't tell anyone, okay? I'm probably going to end up using them against Akito, so I don't want him to know."

"Hn." He leans back on his heels, but it sounds like he's agreeing to the request anyway. _He really needs to work on that..._

"Well, it looks like you two are here bright and early." Kakashi lopes over, a relaxed smile on his face. "And I see that Naruto taught you a new technique."

"Yeah..." I watch him suspiciously. "You're here...rather early. What happened? Did you get lost and wander over during your morning walk?"

I swear that Kakashi's smile turns into a pout at my words. "Well, you don't have to say it like that..." Then, he frowns slightly. "Rough night?"

My gaze sharpens as I watch him. "Nothing particularly unusual, why?"

Kakashi doesn't seem to buy it. "If this is 'nothing particularly unusual', then I feel that I should be concerned as to what your usual is."

I narrow my eyes at him, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see Sasuke watching carefully. _Great...the last thing I need is to be interrogated by Kakashi in front of him._ "It's nothing important, I just didn't sleep well last night."

The single dark eye seems to examine me carefully, before flicking to Sasuke. "Why don't you go and get your running warmed up, Sasuke." Sasuke's eyes flit to me, and for a second, it looks like he wants to protest. But, he walks away obediently and heads towards the flat ground to start running. Kakashi, meanwhile, slides closer to me, keeping his eyes trained carefully on my face. "Now, why don't you tell me what caused your nightmares last night?"

"What made you jump to the conclusion that it was nightmares that kept me awake?" Kakashi seems too smart to lie to, so it's best to be evasive for now. Though I get the feeling that he'll see right through that as well.

His eye focuses on mine, and he looks distinctly sympathetic. "Because I know the look that a ninja has when they're being haunted by nightmares. Now, I know that you've been treated for PTSD, and that your nightmares about what happened back then had supposedly stopped. But that's still a lot for a kid your age to have gone through." He sounds sympathetic too, like he's lived through similar things. Then again, with how long ago the last war was, he might very well have.

But still, he knows things that he shouldn't. I frown at Kakashi, before a flash of recognition shoots through me. "You...were you one of the ANBU who-"

"Yes." He nods slowly. "I saw what happened that night, so I was one of the ANBU that Lord Hokage assigned to talk to you."

 _Well...then if he already knows that dark part of my past..._ "The nightmares never really went away...they just...didn't come back as often as they used to."

"Is that why I've seen Naruto sneaking into your house?" I swear that under that mask, Kakashi is smiling a little. "Because if not...then I think you might have some explaining to do."

"Okay, first, gross." I shudder at the insinuation. I may be twelve, but that doesn't mean I don't understand a dirty joke when I hear one. "And second, yes, that's why we traded spare keys. We did it so that he wouldn't keep coming through the window."

"I see..." Kakashi nods slightly. "Then what about what kept you up last night? Are memories from that night resurfacing?"

I shake my head limply. "No, these are new ones. And last night..." Yellow eyes come to mind. "Last night, a man approached me. I don't know who he is, but he had pale skin, yellow eyes, and dark hair."

Kakashi's eye bugs out, and he turns to face me. "Tell me everything that this man said or did to you."

While I can't be sure exactly why, what I do know is that judging by Kakashi's reaction, this man I met last night is bad news. _Just like Suzaku said..._ "He...he paralyzed me when I looked into his eyes, and he..." I shudder a little. "He grabbed my chin and moved my head around so that he could look at me. He talked about how it would be a few years until I grow into my power. He knows who I am. I don't know how, but he knows, and he knows that my family-" I swallow anxiously. "He said that he wanted to have me, have 'both of us', but that doing that might be 'biting off more than he can chew'."

Kakashi's eye widens, then narrows, and a vicious anger fills his gaze. "I see, so that's what happened." He sniffs the air. "No wonder you doused yourself in shampoo last night."

Obviously, Kakashi knows the man I'm talking about. And if it's enough to freak him out, then I need to know what's going on. "Who was he? What does he want with me? and who else is he after?"

A loud bang interrupts us, and I turn my head to see a huge hold in one of the rocks, and lightning blazing around Sasuke's hand. Just like when Kakashi was fighting Zabuza back in the Land of Waves. _So...he's learning how to control lightning?_ I'm almost a little jealous of him. I haven't even started training to develop lightning yet, and there he is, waving it around like it's nothing. "That is so not fair..."

Kakashi chuckles slightly. "I take it that someone isn't satisfied with wielding wind and fire already." Not satisfied is an understatement.

"Well...Dad could use lightning...and it looked really cool." It's not my fault that I unconsciously leaned towards learning wind and fire first. And it's just going to get harder and harder to learn everything else.

Kakashi pats me on the head. "That's right, your father was special like that, wasn't he?"

I nod quietly. _Yeah...he was. He could use wind and fire, lightning, and even water and earth as well._ I've got a lot to live up to, and no one my age even knows it. "I want to learn lightning..."

Another chuckle bubbles up from his chest. "Well, maybe after the Chunin Exams are over. There's not really enough time for anyone to teach you right now."

"Yeah...I know." I'm not stupid, I know full well how much time it takes me to develop an element, let alone to develop enough to use it in battle. It took me four years to get wind and fire down, and judging based on my little friend, I'm guessing that those went quickly because he made me a little more predisposed towards them. Lightning, as well as water and earth...those are going to take me a lot longer to master. That, or far more intense training. Not to mention a good teacher.

But learning will have to wait, because a chill goes down my spine as I feel bloodlust radiating from behind one of the rocks. _Gaara._ I back up a little, going into a defensive position. _What could he possibly want?_ Whatever it is, there's no way it can be good.

Kakashi senses it as well, and turns towards the rocks. "You can come out now. Your bloodlust gave you away."

Sasuke pauses as Gaara comes out from behind the rock. Those pupil-less eyes find me, drifting slowly to Sasuke, some kind of hunger lying deep in his eyes. And I've had just about enough of all the creepy stares. "Alright, what do you want? You stared more than enough during the preliminaries! What's your deal!?" I know that I'm letting my temper get the better of me, but I can't help it. He's been giving me creepy looks ever since I first met him, and I'm sick of it. I want answers.

His eyes stay fixed on Sasuke, whose hand is twitching ever so slightly, like he's ready to attack. "Your eyes..." I immediately suspect that he's talking about the Sharingan, and that's never good. "You have the same eyes as me." _...Scratch that. This is bad!_

"Leave him alone!" I pull out Shisui's tanto, raising in front of me as I move so that I'm between the two of them. There is no fear left within me, not when someone else is in danger. "If you want to fight someone, you're getting me!"

Sand swirls across the ground, slowly seeking me out. And Gaara starts twitching, his eyes bulging with pure hatred. "Your eyes...I hate your eyes. Full of weakness, full of pity."

 _Chick, Shukaku is agitated. Be careful._ Suzaku's power starts to rise up inside of me, and my eyes take on their sunburst-like form. The chakra is making my skin tingle, like the heat from an open flame. "You say that they're full of weakness...are you sure about that?" The sand swirls faster in response to my question, and I'm honestly about two seconds from jumping this guy.

Gaara turns to Sasuke, a calm aura of murder about him. "Never forget, you are my prey."

Sasuke frowns slightly. "Hold on! Why me? Why are you so fixated on me?"

Gaara blinks slowly. "I see in your eyes, you know what loneliness is. True loneliness, you understand that it is the most painful form of suffering that there is in the world." He tilts his head slightly. "As I said before, we have the same eyes. Eyes with a hunger for power, full of hate. the same as me. Eyes that seek revenge against the ones that made you so lonely. Eyes that burn to see them all dead! It's all in your eyes."

"Okay, hang on a minute here." Kakashi steps in, obviously wanting to prevent the coming bloodbath. "So you're the one called Gaara." He looks the redhead up and down. "Seems like you can read a lot in Sasuke's eyes. Be careful, you may not be able to read him as well as you think. If there's something you wanted to say before the final rounds, go ahead and spit it out."

Gaara bows his head slightly. "When we finally fight, it won't be to advance to the next stage, but solely for survival. One seeking to destroy the other. Only the last one standing will feel the full value of his existence."

"You're not talking about a match." Kakashi admonishes him lightly. "You're talking about a grudge bout to the death. It's crazy."

"Uchiha." Gaara ignores Kakashi completely. "In the depths of your soul, it's what you want too, isn't it? You want to confirm the value of your existence, don't you? To know if you're truly as powerful as you think you are." His eyes widen with an utter coldness. "Whose existence is stronger? Yours? Or the one facing you with murder in his eyes?"

My blood starts to boil, and my chakra starts to run just a little out of control. "Keep talking, and it won't be him you're going to fight." And I intend to keep this little promise.

"Alright, that's enough." Kakashi puts a hand on my shoulder as he stares calmly at Gaara. "Save it for the finals."

I half expect him to decide not to leave, and instead, start a full-scale battle right here. Instead, all of the sand withdraws, and he turns away silently to leave, taking the aura of bloodlust along with him. I, on the other hand, am still thrumming with energy, ready to do some serious damage.

Kakashi sighs. "Well...that was fun." He shakes his head wearily and turns to Sasuke. "I think we just got a preview of the finals, if you and Naruto can't take out Gaara." He might mean it as a joke, but it's got some serious weight to it. Because if things go wrong, then the finals might end up being something of a rematch.

Or a grudge match. I could get down with a grudge match.

I finally start to calm down, but not before I look at Sasuke to see a rather alarmed expression on his face. "What's-" I freeze, realizing that he's looking at my eyes. I hurriedly look away from him until the heat leaves them. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to see that." I never mean for anyone to see that.

Before Sasuke can jump into any kind of interrogation, Kakashi ruffles my hair. I have no idea what his deal is with doing that, but I've seen him do it to Sasuke and Naruto as well. "Alright, maybe you should go home for today. Or go and train with Naruto. The finals are up in a week or so, and I'm sure that he'd appreciate having you there for the last leg of the training." That's his not so subtle way of saying that I'm not needed for whatever training Sasuke has left. "Oh, and make sure to walk home with Naruto from now on. No walking the streets alone in the dark, okay?"

"Okay..." I see the wisdom in his words, even if I don't want him to look at me like a little kid who can't take care of themselves. My eyes drift to Sasuke, who, unlike earlier, is no longer using the Sharingan. So I walk up to him, dip his head down, and stand up on my toes to give him another chakra injection. "Good luck with the rest of your training. I'll see you at the finals."

Then, without waiting for him to even offer a goodbye, I race over the edge of the cliff and slide halfway down the side, before taking up a run that takes me right to its base. Once down, I look back up at the cliff one last time, before turning my gaze to the north. _I guess...it's time to head home._


	42. Extreme Leapfrog

**So, I've outlined the next six or so chapters, all the way through the attack on the village. Which means that I've been hopping between them, getting them started. That means that I'm going to be posting most (if not all) of them in the next couple of days. I hope that you're prepared for a whirlwind of updates (because then it's back to doing term papers and dealing with mid-terms).**

 **Okay, so why don't we skip forward another week, since I really want to get to the finals soon. It's time for Naruto to play a dangerous game of leapfrog. With a side order of ramen, and attempted homicide. and...a little bit of Ciara and Jiraiya bonding (if you squint hard enough). Oh, and Ciara sort of ships NaruSaku (again, if you squint the right way).**

* * *

I watch as Naruto growls in frustration over his efforts to take steps in summoning. Although, with the amount of effort that he's putting into this, I'm rather glad that I'm not learning it as well. It looks really hard. And if he can't pull it off in the next five days, he's not going to be able to use it in the finals.

That looks like a pretty tall order at this point.

Naruto give the jutsu another shot, and there's yet another puff of smoke around him. "That just...had to work!" But, as the smoke disipates, well I have to admit that it's not a tadpole. But the green thing with four legs and swirls all over it still has a tail. Not to mention, it's tiny. "Ah! What the heck is the difference between a frog and a tadpole anyway!?"

"You mean besides the fact that a tadpole is a baby and a frog or toad is an adult?" With Naruto, it's hardly going to be a trick question. "One is big, the other is small. Or in this case, one is small, the other is smaller."

An Jiraiya is being absolutely no help, as he stares through the bushes at mostly naked girls, again. Honestly, apart from letting Naruto sign that contract, he hasn't really taught him anything at all. And thanks to that, this week has basically just been a vacation for me, apart from the occasional need to heal Naruto a little after he does something stupid.

"Look, Pervy Sage! Can't ya act like ya believe in me!?" But before he can get an answer to his question, Naruto topples right over.

I race over to him and quickly check his pule and his breathing. They're both fine, if a bit sluggish. _Great...just great..._ "He collapses again." Jiraiya finally stops paying attention to the girls and walks over to check on Naruto. The old pervert might not be much of a help most days, but he seems to care more about Naruto than he's willing to admit.

"He tries a lot harder than people think he does..."I brush my fingers over Naruto's cheek. "They call him a loser, a failure, but it's not true. He just...needs to grasp things his way. Conventional methods don't suit him."

"Hm...you may be right..." Jiraiya frowns a little, as though thinking. "I might just have an idea about that." Then, he head over to the stream and fills up a bucket of water. "Come on, open your eyes already!" He dumps the entire bucket of water straight onto Naruto's face, and I barely tumble back in time to avoid getting soaked.

Naruto splutters awake and shoots up into a sitting position. He shakes the water off like a dog, then glares at the old man. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Oh, that?" Jiraiya grins. "To knock sense into ya, since ya have none."

"I don't!? Look at you!" Naruto's got a point there, Jiraya seems to lack all sense if something with boobs walks by.

Jiraya, on the other hand, gets right into Naruto's face. "You've been training for three weeks, and you're still at this level? If you continue like this, it's pointless." Jiraiya is clearly trying to rile Naruto up, though for what purpose, I'm a little afraid to ask.

"Hey! That's not true, gimme a break!" And Naruto is falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. "I'm tryin' as hard as I can, here!"

"Maybe you are, maybe you're not." _Well that's certainly cryptic of him_. "If you want to succeed at this summoning jutsu, then you must do it like your life depends on it." _Oh...shit. I hope he's not being literal with that._

"What do you think I've been doing!?" Naruto leaps to his feet angrily. "I train every day like I'm gonna die! If you have time to complain about it, teach me a trick to do it!"

"A trick?" Jiraiya scratches his head, and I have a sinking feeling in my gut. _Oh...crap._ "Oh...I don't know." _Yeah...he's baiting him..._ And my instincts are screaming at me that I'm not going to like whatever Jiraiya has up his sleeve.

"What!? You're not gonna teach me?" Naruto's voice takes on just an edge of desperation.

Jiraiya turns to stare seriously at Naruto. "You need to put your life at risk." And now I really don't like where this is going.

"My...life?" Naruto doesn't seem to understand a rather basic concept.

"That's right, it's no joke. Even so, are you willing to do it?" Jiraiya is clearly not looking for informed consent, just the most basic consent.

And Naruto, being the stubborn, determined idiot that he is, nods quickly. "Of course, I always risk my life! There's no point in anything if you don't go all the way!"

Now, I have to put my foot down. "Naruto, are you sure about this? You do means that if you risk your life and fail, you die, right?" I need to make sure that he knows what he's getting into before any of this goes down.

Naruto grins widely at me. "I'm not gonna die, believe it!"

"I see..." Jiraiya stands up, towers high over the both of us. "Alright, follow me." He walks off towards the village, before looking back over his shoulder at me. "Ciara, feel free to join us."

I have a very bad feeling about all of this, but since Naruto is determined to do this, I might as well go along to make sure that he doesn't actually end up killing himself. Because Jiraiya seems determined to.

* * *

A half hour later, I find myself in the women's section of one of the Leaf's many hot springs. Of course, knowing that the old man is a pervert, I make sure to hide myself far away from the fence that separates the men's and women's sections of the hot springs.

Not that I really have anything to hide, anyway.

But relaxing in the hot spring reminds me of the bathtub back at the tower in the Forest of Death. Only the water is hotter, and there's steam everywhere. Oh, and Jiraiya is making a ton of noise over there in the men's bath. That's definitely nothing like the ladies' room in the tower. Those rooms must have been soundproof or something.

And after a nice hour in the springs, Jiraiya's voice rings out loudly. "Ciara, it's time to leave!"

"Got it!" I roll my eyes, thankful that this side of the bath is rather empty at this time of the day. So I pull myself out of the warm water, dry myself off thoroughly, and change back into my clothes so that I can go and meet them outside.

Outside, Naruto grins at me. "That was a pretty awesome bath, right?"

"I guess so..." I'd never actually been to a hot spring before. I was way too young for the ones at the estate, and I'd never really felt like going to one since. _Maybe I should change that..._

Jiraya starts walking again, so Naruto and I jog to catch up to his much larger strides. And Naruto, despite the relaxing bath, is starting to get a little impatient. "Hey, Pervy Sage."

"I'm the Toad Sage." Jiraiya snaps back, not even looking back.

"Yeah, whatever ya are. What does taking a bath have to do with the summoning jutsu anyway?" Naruto might be on to something here, because I'm not entirely sure what's going on either. But when he gets no answer, Naruto frowns. "Hey! Hello!? I'm talkin' to you!" Jiraiya goes and stops all of a sudden. "Wah! What is it? Why'd you stop?"

"Hey, Naruto." Jiraiya's voice is suspiciously subdued. "Tell me, is there something you like to eat?"

"Huh?" Naruto looks utterly confused. "Something I like to eat? Why?"

"Oh boy..." _This had better not be some kind of last meal thing..._ "He likes Ramen. Ichiraku is his favorite restaurant ever."

Naruto's eyes suddenly light up. "Yeah! Ichiraku! We go there after missions! It's awesome!"

"Good...then let's go there to get something to eat, alright?" Jiraiya smiles at us. And instantly, I know that I can't trust that smile.

But, he's true to his word, and he takes us over to Ichiraku Ramen. I, of course, can't eat nearly as much as Naruto manages to put away, so I make myself happy with a single bowl that honestly looks too large to all fit in my stomach.

"Alright! I'm gonna eat!" Naruto breaks his chopsticks and starts digging into his own bowl. "This is great! Why can't the training be like this everyday?" He picks up a piece of Naruto, a weird swirly fishcake that kind of reminds me of his hair, and tosses it down his throat.

"Good...now eat up!" Jiraiya's tone is getting more suspicious by the minute. "It may be your last meal."

I nearly choke on my ramen, and I shoot a dangerous glare at Jiraiya. _If you get my best friend killed, I am going to murder you._ I haven't felt such a strong desire to commit homicide since the last time Sasuke called me Fairy. But Naruto just looks confused by the mumbled words.

Jiraiya nearly chokes when he sees my glare. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all! Anyway, eat up! Yeah, that's right, eat like there's no tomorrow!" And his laugh is so obviously suspicious that it makes me wonder if he's just screwing with us, or if he really has such a powerful nervous laugh.

Naruto, on the other hand, glares at him flatly. "I don't know what's so funny, and I don't care." He looks back down at his bowl. "I got food!" He starts stuffing his face again, seemingly not caring that Jiraiya seems to be planning his murder later. then, he finishes off the bowl and holds it out to Teuchi. "Hit me chef! Seconds on that ramen!"

And, of course, Naruto's bottomless pit doesn't quit until he's put away about a dozen bowls of the stuff. Jiraiya has long since run off, probably to do some more peeking at poor, unsuspecting girls. Honestly, that man needs to be put on a leash, an industrial strength leash. _Maybe Kiba has one..._ Memories of our little dinner start rising, and I snort with laughter as his scarlet face comes to mind. _I don't think I've ever seen him that embarrassed over food, ever._

"Ah...oh man, I'm stuffed." Naruto pats his belly, which has been stuffed to the brim with ramen. "Thanks a bunch, Pervy Sage." That's when he looks over to see the giant frog toy replacing his supposed teacher. "He left!?"

"Don't worry..." I pull some money that I've had stuffed away somewhere, since I know full well that Naruto blows a lot of his extra money on filling that bottomless pit of his.. "This should cover it." I hand the cash to Ayame and pull Naruto from the restaurant. "Come on, let's go find him."

As we walk down the street, Naruto rather dejected by seemingly being abandoned by his new teacher, a familiar voice calls out to us. "So, are you full now?"

"Quit your messing around!" Naruto starts crying "You were supposed to treat me to that meal, not make Ciara pay for it!"

Jiraiya laughs heartily. "Oh, come now, I never said I'd treat you."

"Ah! But you're supposed to! You're the grown-up!" He bangs on the old man's chest rather futilely, whining like a little brat.

"Say, Naruto." Jiraiya's voice softens, and once again, I really don't like where this seems to be going. "Do you happen to have a girl that you like?" Naruto looks up in confusion. "I asked if you have a special girl. You know, someone close to you." He looks over to me, and I hold up my hands and wave him away, because it's sure as hell not me.

"Well..." Naruto presses his fingers together, rather like Hinata, and has a blush all over his face. "I don;t know. I mean...kinda, sorta" He blushes furiously at his own words. "I guess you could say I like her."

"So, who is it?" Jiraya leans down, hoping to hear this little no-so secret.

"N-no one, just S-Sakura!" I slam my palm to my face and shake my head. _Naruto... Why are you so bad at keeping your own secrets?_

"Okay, Let's go see her, because..." Jiraiya points down the street with gusto. "You're going to give her...a big hug!"

While Naruto freaks out over the possibility of getting to hug Sakura, I just shake my head tiredly. "If you do it, she'll murder you. Believe it."

Jiraiya rolls his eyes and kicks Naruto's butt. "Just go already!"

Naruto looks back uncertainly, but takes off before I finally sigh. "Sakura is going to put him six feet under for this..."

"Oh?" Jiraiya looks at me curiously. "Are you saying that she's a girl who responds violently to affection?" I nod once, and that makes him laugh. "Oh, that reminds me of a woman I knew in my younger days. She had the biggest pair of-"

I throw a peach at his face and get it stuck right between his teeth. "I really don't need to hear it."

* * *

After finally tracking down where Naruto ran off to, I find him lying in the street, black and blue bruises covering his skin. "I told you so." I lean down and run a healing hand over Naruto's face, willing the swelling and the future bruising away. "Jeez...you never learn, do you? If you want to woo a girl like Sakura, you have to be able to not just take her punch, but stop it. You'll never get any of her respect, otherwise."

"But...I don't wanna hurt her." Naruto sits up, rubbing his sore cheek. And of course, he's missed the point completely.

I sigh and stand up, pulling him up with me. "I'm not saying to hurt her, I'm saying that you need to show her that she can't just push you around. She's looking down on you right now, and until that stops, you're never going to have a chance with her."

Naruto groans a little, as his butt is probably sore from landing on it. Though I'm so not treating that. "How do you know all this stuff, anyway?"

"How do I...?" I frown slightly. "Um...logic? I mean, come on, we're ninja. If it were me, I wouldn't want a boyfriend that I could push around like a ball. There would need to be some mutual respect for individual skills involved. Besides, no kunoichi wants a boyfriend who's a pushover!" I push him right over, just to prove my point. "Anyway, let's just go..." Anywhere is better than here right now.

So, it's right back to following Jiraiya as we wander through the village. And with every step we take, we get further and further away from the Hokage Mountain. I don't usually come out this far, but Jiraiya clearly seems to know where he's going. Which, of course, it a very bad thing to me right now.

"Hey, if I do this, can I really summon a frog?" Naruto doesn't sound too sure about the methods used so far, and honestly, I can't blame him. Really, all we've done so far is gone through a 'what would you like to do before you die' list. It's not even a bucket list, just a last requests list. Hence, the bad thing.

"You bet, of course, absolutely, without a doubt..." That really doesn't sound very convincing.

Thankfully, Naruto seems to agree. "Are you sure?"

"Is there anything else you've always wanted to do?" _Oh, no, here we go again..._ "Anything?"

"What, what are you-" I move too slowly to stop Jiraiya before he punches Naruto in the stomach, knocking my friend out cold.

As Jiraiya picks him up and tosses him over a giant shoulder, I find that I must protest. "What the hell do you think you're doing with him!? You've been granting him these 'last requests', and so help me, if you kill him, I will throw you off a mountain!" I'm not entirely sure how I would do it, but I'm pretty confident that I could find a way to do it.

"Calm down..." He looks at me sternly. "He needs to draw out his other chakra if he wants to accomplish the jutsu. So, I'm helping him do that."

"How..." Then, it dawns on me. "You're going to put him in a life or death situation and force the fox's chakra out."

"Exactly." He frowns slightly. "So...how much do you know about the Nine-Tailed Fox?"

I look away from him as we start walking, my mind now boiling over with questions, many of which, I have no answers to. "No as much as I'd like to, but enough to know what kind of power it has. I hadn't been born yet when the Fox attacked the village, but my dad told me about it a few times...even against the Hokage's orders. And...Suzaku has told me a little as well."

"Suzaku?" Jiraiya glances at me curiously.

I touch my stomach absentmindedly. "He's...like the fox. He's a demon, a nice one. A big flaming bird with ten tails, or so he says. I've never actually seen what he really looks like, since the only time I ever actually saw him, he looked like a big flash of light, right before he was sealed inside me."

"Oh? And when did that happen?" Jiraiya seems to really like asking questions. "For that matter, what happened to your clan? I haven't seen a single one of them around."

I grit my teeth angrily as I remember that bloody night. "Someone...sent assassins in to kill everyone. I was the only survivor...because my uncle performed the seal that saved my life...and brought me together with Suzaku."

"I see..." Jiraiya goes silent, and on his face is truly an expression that shows that he is thinking hard. "I'm sorry for your loss."

I scoff quietly. "You...and everyone else who knows..." _Well, except for that creepy guy last week. He just seemed disappointed._

It doesn't take long for Jiraiya to decide that we're in a good spot to wake Naruto up, and he puts him down on the ground. "Alright. Think you can wake the kid up?"

I snort and roll my eyes. "Just wake him up? Yeah, no problem." I lace my hand with chakra, taking several seconds to charge it up, and I smack him right in the forehead, discharging the chakra throughout his system. The chakra should shock his whole system, while the impact should jolt him awake.

And it does, Naruto flinches and rolls over, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. He looks around dazedly. "Where...where are we?" He looks to me for the answer.

I shrug. "Don't ask me, I was just following the giant pervert."

"Hey!" Jiraiya looks about ready to scold me, but focuses on Naruto instead. "Stand up!"

"What?" Naruto gets to his feet. "What's going on?"

"Your training ends right here." Jiraiya puts his foot down, literally, on this point.

"Huh!?" Naruto blows up like a mini volcano. "But I haven't done anything yet!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya seriously wants his attention this time. "Starting now, you must stare death in the face."

Naruto shrinks a little. "Death?"

"That's right?" Jiraiya nods. "To stave off the horror of death, you must release enormous chakra. Once you experience that, you'll understand how to release the red chakra. If you don't wish to die, do something about it, now!" He pokes Naruto right in the middle of his forehead protector, and sends him flying right through the bushes and out to the other side of the trees.

On instinct, I race towards him, only to be held back by Jiraiya. I turn on him angrily. "What did you do!? Tell me! Now!" My voice nearly becomes a roar as I become downright hysterical.

"What I had to." He looks through the trees towards where Naruto disappeared. "Now, just have faith in him and wait." He picks me up and puts me on his shoulder as he walks through the trees. We come out on the other side of a small forest, to see a huge ravine. And from the looks of it, Naruto is falling into its depths.

"...how deep is it?" I have to know, for Naruto's sake.

"It's nearly bottomless." And Jiraiya's words actually reassure me.

I smile slightly. "Good. that means that I can save him, if he can't do this on his own."

"Oh?" Jiraiya looks up at me quizzically. "And how do you figure that?"

"Because..." I smile slightly. "I can use my demon's wings. And he will teach me how to use them, if I need him to."

After about a minute, I sense a huge surge of chakra that puts a smile on my face. "Naruto..."

"Well done, kid." Jiraiya nods approvingly.

I look over the edge curiously. "I wonder how big the toad is."

"Too big..." Jiraiya cringes a little. "That there is the chief toad...Gamabunta."

Rumbling comes from deep inside the chasm, and it almost sounds like someone speaking, or roaring. "Hey Jiraiya! Where are you Jiraiya! Just what do you think you're doing!?"

"Oh boy..." He wraps an arm around my legs, securing me to his shoulder. "Come on, kid, let's go. I don't wanna stick around for this mess. Even I can't handle Gamabunta."

As Jiraiya moves away, I look back uncertainly at the ravine. "And you think that Naruto can?"

"Not a chance!" He laughs easily. "But Gamabunta will get him out of there, don't you worry about that." I have no idea where his confidence comes from, but if he's wrong, I'm taking it out on him.

* * *

After seeing the gigantic toad leap out of the ravine from a distance, I spend the next few hours sitting around, watching the most intense game of leapfrog that I've ever witnessed in my life. Gamabunta is literally changing the landscape with every jump. It's awesome and terrifying at the same time. But overall, actually pretty cool. And Naruto stubbornly hangs on the entire time. Meanwhile, Jiraiya goes and peeks on some girls while I watch the leapfrog show from a distance.

But around the time the sun starts to set and the girls go home, leaving Jiraiya with only one source of entertainment, Gamabunta finally stops flailing around, instead, taking a might leap through the air.

Jiraiya sighs. "Play fair, Gamabunta...this is a matter of pride for Naruto too."

But when the giant toad comes back down into the pond where the girls hang out, Naruto sways on the giant creature's back, having managed to hold on this long. It's been at least six hours since their little game began. Then, as Naruto starts to tumble off the toad's back, he manages to summon up some shadow clones to help keep him up there. It's actually rather impressive, and once more, I must worship the boy's stamina.

The thrashing begins once more, and Naruto goes about celebrating his victory. That is, until he passes right out and starts falling towards the ground. I reach out, leaping right off the cliff as he sails towards the ground. But as I shoot towards him, a huge pink tongue shoots out of the toad's mouth and wraps itself around Naruto, beating me to the punch.

Then, I have the misfortune, or maybe good fortune, of slamming into the soft tongue. It breaks my fall, and as the tongue rises back up into the air, I tumble off of it and onto the toad's back, right next to where he deposits Naruto. I sit next to my friend and check his vital signs, sighing softly with relief as I find everything satisfactory. _He's just exhausted...good. He'll sleep well tonight._

"Child, are you the boy's friend?" He seems to be addressing me, since there's no one else around.

"Yes, I am." I ruffle Naruto's hair proudly. "And I'm very proud of what he's accomplished today."

"As you should be..." The toad shifts slightly, as though coiling up to jump again. "Hold on tight, I will take you to your hospital..."

"Huh?" I shift slightly as his muscles coil. And I realize just in time what he's planning to do. _Uh-oh._ I guide chakra to my hands and feet and lie on top of Naruto, keeping the two of us hooked to the toad's back. Then the giant amphibian jumps high into the air, and for a moment, I feel weightless.

When we touch back down, it's just outside of the hospital. It certainly causes a stir with the nurses, but I grab Naruto and jump to the ground, him lying in my arms. I look up to see some doctors and nurses running outside, and I smile softly at them. "I think...my friend needs a hospital bed..." Then, I yawn loudly and I look down at Naruto, just before my vision blurs, and I fall asleep. Mercifully, to a sleep without nightmares.

It's been a rather rough month for both of us.


	43. Dancing With Demons

**Gosh, I've got two rather excitable shippers hanging around, don't I? Sometimes, I feel like I'm writing this quickly just to make my shippers happy. Not that that's a bad thing.**

 **I decided to dedicate a smaller chapter to the meeting of demons. This is the last chapter before the final rounds start. It's got a fair bit of familiar dialogue, but it's got a lot of interesting stuff thrown in as well. I hope you like it. A lot of it is going to tackle issues surrounding Ciara's instincts, her sense of justice, and how far she's willing to go to protect the people she cares about.**

* * *

Like a dutiful and loyal best friend, here I am, in the hospital, playing shogi with Shikamaru while waiting for Naruto to wake up from his three day long coma. I mean, I know that playing leapfrog with a giant toad probably took a lot out of him, but he's been doing nothing but snoring for three whole days.

I glance at the fruit basket sitting next to the two of us, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Shikamaru roll his. "Go ahead. It's not like Chouji's going to get to eat any of it any time soon."

"Alright." Knowing Chouji, he probably gave himself constipation or indigestion, or something else that's rather unpleasant. He's the type to eat before thinking about it, so it should be no surprise that Shikamaru wandered in earlier planning to visit him.

So, I grab all of the peaches and plums from the basket and set them down in a little pyramid next to me. That has Shikamaru raising an eyebrow. "They your favorites?"

"Mm-hm." I take a bite out of one of the plums, and while it's a bit sweeter than I'd like, it's juicy and refreshing. "I eat them often enough that I probably taste like peaches."

Shikamaru quietly looks like he's choking on something. "It's your move. Hm?" He looks at our minute counter. "The sand stopped. What's up with that? Did they forget to wind it or something?"

"Stopped...? I look at the counter, then flick it. But the sand won't keep moving. _I have a bad feeling about this..._

"Anyway, it's your move." He seems to forget the minute counter and just waves at me to take my turn.

"Okay." I look down at the board and pick up a pawn, moving it forward. "So, when do you think Naruto is going to wake up?"

"How should I know?" Shikamaru lazily moves his knight, not seeming to care where it lands. "He's your friend, shouldn't you know his sleeping habits?"

"I do, I just wondered what you thought." Rather than moving a piece on the board, I turn around and make a face at Naruto's loud snoring. "Okay, time for drastic measures, my ears can't take much more of this. This should work..." I pick up an apple from the basket and lob it at Naruto's head. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead!"

"Ow!" As expected, he wakes up instantly. "Hey! What was that for!?" He sits up immediately, looking around in utter confusion.

Shikamaru snickers. "Well, I guess that woke you up."

"Told you so." I smirk at Naruto, who glowers briefly at me, before looking around again.

He frowns. "Where am I? What is this?"

"The hospital." Shikamaru says that like it should be obvious, which it isn't since I don't remember Naruto ever needing to be hospitalized before. "They said you've been out cold like this for three days straight."

"And I can confirm it." I move from my seat and go to sit next to Naruto on the bed. "I've been here the whole time, monitoring your condition. You exhausted yourself with that little game of leapfrog that you decided to have with Gamabunta."

"Three days...?" Naruto blinks groggily, then I clamp my hands over my ears as he opens his mouth. "Three days straight!?" He jumps out of bed, greatly alarming Shikamaru.

"Uh...yeah. More or less." He gulps, not entirely sure how to deal with a hyper and freaked out Naruto who has just gotten out of bed.

"Shikamaru! When does the final competition begin!?" He's almost in hysterics by this point.

"Uh...tomorrow." Shikamaru looks to me, his eyes pleading for me to save him from my crazy best friend.

"WHAT!?" He grabs hold of Shikamaru's collar. "Are you crazy!? Why the heck didn't you wake me up sooner!? I can't be lying around at a time like this, I have to be getting ready! And Pervy Sage! Where's that old coot!? He's supposed to be supervising my training!"

"Calm down, Naruto! Quit terrorizing Shikamaru." I grab hold of the back of his shirt and pull him back down onto the bed. "You needed the sleep, and it's no good to yell at Shikamaru about it. Besides, I'm the one that woke you up, not him. So if you'd like to be pelted with more fruit, just say so."

He turns on me next, frantically searching for something. "Where are my clothes!? I've gotta get dressed."

"Dammit Naruto!" I tackle him to the bed and hold him there. "The finals start tomorrow. You finished your training. You're ready. Now, you just have to make sure that nothing happens to you between now and then, alright?"

Shikamaru sighs irritably. "Would you two knock it off? Naruto, she's right. The worst thing to do is to freak out the day before a big competition. Resting can be the best thing."

"Thank you..." I back off and let Naruto up now that he's stopped thrashing around, going deadly quiet. "Hey, Naruto, is something wrong?"

"Yeah..." His hands move towards his stomach, and I hear a loud growl. "I'm really starving."

I slap my forehead exasperatedly. "Of course you are..." I shake my head wearily. "You've been unconscious for three days. I would be surprised if you weren't hungry."

"Is that all...?" Shikamaru sighs in relief. "Man, stop scaring me like that." Then, he picks up the basket of fruit."Oh, look at this. I went to all the trouble of getting this stuff for Chouji, and then the doctors told me he couldn't have it. Such a drag..."

I grin at Naruto and hold up the peaches and plums. "I already snatched my favorites!"

Shikamaru smirks. "Well, at least we can eat it."

"Chouji?" Naruto blinks confusedly. "You mean he's here in the hospital too?"

"Nothin' to worry about." Shikamaru snickers. "All he's got is a bad case of indigestion. He ate one short rib too many."

Naruto bursts out laughing, rolling around on his sheets in a giggle fit. "I should have figured, that's just like him!"

"Yeah, well, you two are just lucky that me and Ciara are around, otherwise this place would be short a few visitors." He and I share a wry smirk at the expense of our silly best friends who decided to land themselves in the hospital. "Here." He tosses Naruto an apple from the basket.

Naruto catches it and rubs it against his shirt. "Oh, wow, it looks delicious." But just as he's about to take a bite, he stops.

"What?" Shikamaru raises a wary brow, as though expecting the apple to explode. "What is it now?"

Naruto giggle evilly. "Let's eat it in front of Chouji, it'll drive him crazy."

"Man, that's mean..." Shikamaru shakes his head, even with a smile growing on his face. "I like it."

I huff with amusement. "Jeez, you two are a couple of sadistic jerks, you know that?"

"Aw...come on, Ciara, it'll be fun! I promise!" Naruto grins widely as he reaches for his clothes and pulls them on. "Don't ya wanna see Chouji's face when we tease him till he goes crazy?"

Well, the thought of teasing Chouji is an appealing one, and it might make for some good entertainment while I try to kill a little time before the finals start. "Fine, fine. Then let's get moving."

Shikamaru picks up the basket, and the three of us leave the room behind. But as we move down the hallways, looking for Chouji's room, a chill runs up and down my spine. And it's a chill that I've come to know very well. Shikamaru is the one to pick up on my uneasiness. "Ciara? What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"There's...bloodlust in the air." _But...why? Why would Gaara be here? The only people he's been fixated on are Sasuke, me, and..._ "Lee!" I take off down the hallways towards where I'm pretty sure Lee's room is. And sure enough, the feeling of bloodlust is getting closer and closer. "Gaara is going to kill Lee!"

"What!?" Naruto panics and picks up speed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive!" I glance back at Shikamaru. "Have those shadows ready, you may need to restrain Gaara."

"Right." He nods, his eyes focused on the path ahead.

And as we come to the end of the corridor and to the source of the bloodlust, I throw open the door. And there is Gaara, standing over Lee's bed, his sand writhing on the sheets. Shikamaru races around me, stepping just inside the room before his shadow attaches itself to Gaara, immobilizing him.

Naruto pants slightly as he runs into the room as well. And now, it's the three of us staring down Gaara. And the whole room is filled to the brim with killing intent. But before a plan can be made to deal with him, Naruto races forward and punches Gaara in the face. "What the heck do you think you're doing in here, you rat!?"

Shikamaru winces, having felt the force of the punch thanks to the shadow connection. "Hey, man, go easy. I'm using my Shadow Possession Jutsu, so when you're bashing him, you're bashing me too. You got it?"

"Oh, sorry Shikamaru." Naruto looks just a tad ashamed of himself, but that's not the bigger issue here.

No, the bigger issue is that we've got a killer in front of us who is trying to off one of our friends. And judging by the cracks on his face, Gaara is not a happy camper right now. _So...what are we going to do about this...?_

Naruto returns to the two of us and glares back at Gaara. "Out with it, what were you trying to pull?"

"I hardly think that needs answering..." I look over to Lee's bed, still covered with sand. "I doubt that he's here to make Lee a sandbox to build sandcastles in."

But Naruto wants answers straight from Gaara's mouth. "Well, are you gonna tell us what you were gonna do?"

"I was going to kill him." Gaara's tone is even and flat. And it's more than a little creepy.

That throws the boys off guard for a moment, but Shikamaru recovers quickly. "You already beat him once in the competition. What's your problem? Wasn't that enough for you? Do you have some kind of personal grudge against him or something?"

"I have nothing against him." Gaara's low, gravelly voice travels towards us like the sand he commands. "It's nothing that complicated, I simply want to kill him, that's all."

"You know what, you're sick in the head!" Naruto is so loud that I'm surprised we haven't drawn the attention of the nurses. "You're crazy!"

"Yeah, you think we're just gonna stand by and let you do whatever you want, you sick, selfish, psycho?" Shikamaru certainly has a way with words. But at this rate, he's going to draw far too much attention to himself, and more wrath than he can handle.

So, I step towards Gaara. "If you really need someone to take your feelings out on, then how about we take this outside and leave the patients in this place alone?" Shikamaru fidgets behind me, likely very uncomfortable with the situation I would appear to be getting myself into. But I figure, if you want to bait a trap, do it with something your prey wants.

Gaara turns his eyes on me, his cold, blank gaze boring into me. "If you don't get out of my way, I'll have to kill you three as well." It would seem that he completely ignored my challenge.

"Oh, really!?" Naruto holds out his arms in a challenging position. "Let's just see you try it!"

"Hey! You two, take it easy!" Shikamaru tries to hold us back, all the while, his brain working a mile a minute, probably trying to find us a way out of this mess.

I just hope that our way out doesn't involve destroying the hospital.

Then, Shikamaru tries a new tactic. "Yeah, yeah, we watched your last match against Lee, we know you're tough. But you know, the three of us have a few little tricks up our sleeves as well. We were holding back during the competition, there are things you haven't even seen yet."

I can see where Shikamaru is going with this, and though I doubt it'll work, I might as well help in his plan. "Well, your tricks might be little, but I know for a fact that mine are far from it. And Naruto's secret little tricks are nothing to sneeze at either. For get him not seeing our special tricks, I guarantee you that I've got tricks that no one has ever seen." And that's certainly no bluff.

Shikamaru must be resisting the urge to roll his eyes, opting to smirk instead. "On top of all that, it's three against one. So don't be a fool, okay? Just take my advice and go. Quietly."

"I'll say it once more. If you get in my way, I'll kill you." Gaara seems rather insistent on the killing people part. _What kind of mental trauma do you have to have to be so homicidal? I mean, I understand the feeling, but only when someone is really asking to be put in the ground, and even then, it's mostly a joke. It's never pure and aimless like this._

Naruto isn't going to take that lying down. "And I'll say it again! Let's see you try it!"

"Back off, will ya!? We don't wanna go there!" Shikamaru is trying to salvage the situation, even though he never really had any control over it in the first place. "This guy fights like he's mad, like he's a demon or something!"

Unknowingly, Shikamaru has just stepped on a landmine, or rather, three landmines. Naruto, on the other hand, has a harsh look in his eyes. "He can act like a demon if he wants to, but ya know what? I got the real thing inside of me!"

"In that case..." I step just to the right of Shikamaru, blocking him slightly from Gaara's view. "Why don't we leave this dance to the demons, and keep the humans out of it? If Naruto is going to go all in here, there's no reason why I shouldn't either. I hate calling myself a demon, because I know in my gut that it isn't true, not really. But for the sake of impact, I'll say what I must.

Naruto's eyes narrow, his eyes full of anger and pain. He's probably reliving a whole host of painful memories right now, and there's nothing I can do to protect him from them. Especially not with a true monster standing right in front of us. Right now, there is no time for sympathy, no time for pity, and no time for comforting words. Right now, it is a battle of wills, and I am determined to come out on top.

"Idiot!" Shikamaru elbows Naruto. "What the hell is wrong with you two? Leave this to me! What's the point in getting him mad?"

"Demons, huh?" Gaara closes his eyes and bows his head slightly. "My demon is as real as yours are." Then he opens his eyes once more. "From my birth, my upbringing was not what most would consider a happy one. To ensure that I became the strongest of shinobi, my father had cast his ninjutsu on me, fusing my unborn self with a sand spirit." _...Shukaku..._ "I destroyed the life of the woman who gave birth to me. I was born a monster. Its name is Shukaku, and it's the living incarnation of an old monk who lived in the Sand Village, who'd been sealed up in a jar of tea."

"Yeah?" Shikamaru tries to maintain his composure, but he's clearly sweating bullet. "Some kind of demonic jutsu, but to use it on a baby before it's even born? Man, that's creepy."

Naruto's eyes widen, filling with fear, and a measure of sympathy. But both are overshadowed by the sheer horror that his own memories must be weighing down on him. _Why...why is it that I was the only one to escape their suffering?_ Though I suppose that it's not entirely true. After all, I've seen horrors that most ninja our age can't even dream of.

"Gee, what a swell guy your dad must've been." Shikamaru is breathing a little heart, and I can hear his heartbeat racing. "He really must've loved you a lot."

"You speak of love?" I'm sure that if there were emotion in his voice Gaara would be scoffing. "Don't measure me by your standards. Love. Family. The only emotional ties I have to my family are the ones I like to wrap around their necks. There are only ties of hate. Given life by the death of my mother, I was brought into being and nurtured as the salvation of the village. I was the Kazekage's child. My father taught me the innermost secrets of the shinobi, he pampered and protected me, and left me to myself. For a time, I thought that was love. And that was when everything started."

 _Okay...he's clearly psychopathic. Textbook case of a homicidal psychopath._

"When what started?" Shikamaru almost sounds scared to ask.

Naruto is decidedly more angry than scared. "What was it? Are you gonna tell us or not? So, go on! What started? What was it?"

Gara's mouth contorts into a grimace, and his eyes bulge and become bloodshot. "In the six years since I became six years old, my father tried to destroy me more times than I can count!"

 _Attempted assassination!?_ That is certainly something I wouldn't have believed that a parent was capable of. And it certainly explains a little of why he's so far gone. But, as I glance at Lee, I have to remember that it doesn't excuse his behavior. He is not to simply be forgiven for trying to kill Lee. He'll have to show true remorse and understanding before that can happen.

Shikamaru doesn't buy it. "You just finished saying how your father pampered and protected you. So, which is it?"

Gaara just continues to smirk at us. "Those who get to be too strong are apt to become feared. The jutsu that gave me birth had unbalanced something in my mind, even the fools in my village finally realized I had emotional problems. My father, the Kazekage, created me as his ultimate weapon. but I eventually became a threat to the very village I was meant to save. By the time I was six, I became a figure of terror to the villagers. To them, I was a relic of the past that they wished would disappear. So you see, I had failed at the one purpose for which I was given life. What purpose was left for me in this existence? Why go on living?" This sounds like the mother of all existential crises. "For a long time, I couldn't find the answer to that. But in order to live, you need a purpose. To exist for no reason...is the same as being dead."

"What is this guy talking about?" Shikamaru doesn't understand it. But one look at Naruto tells me that I'm not the only one who does.

I...understand. I know what he means by that. After my family died, I felt alone, so very alone. I had no idea why I'd been left alone in the world, why I was the only one alive, while the rest of them were dead. A Shiryugu exists for their family, to protect the ones they hold most dear. And without that, there was no use for me. Though at five years old, I wouldn't have been able to grasp that concept in words. Only now that I'm older can I actually put words to how I felt.

But now, things are different. I have Naruto, I have my teammates, I have people around me that I want to protect. I have a reason to keep going, and I have a goal that I strive towards. My goal is to be strong enough to protect everyone I love, everyone I hold dead, so that I will never lose everything again. I have power, and I will learn how to use it. And I will never stop striving for that. Because the purpose for which I was born, was that of a protector. I know that truth...hidden away deep inside of me. It's ingrained into my instincts, into my desires, and even into my personality.

Naruto exists to make friends, to rise above it all. To go on to succeed and lead people. That is why my friend exists. And if I must, then I will be his sword and his shield. Though I know that my place is at his back. The place where I will do the most good is not as his weapon, but as his partner. His battle partner.

Gaara, on the other hand, seems to have other ideas. "Then, in time, the answer came to me. To put it simply, my reason for living is in the killing of others. for years, I lived in fear of those who were sent to murder me. But now, I am at peace. I killed many would-be assassins, and it was while I was doing it that the truth was made clear to me." His eyes take on a hateful, vengeful light. "I live solely for myself. I love only myself. As it was the death of my mother that first gave me life, now, it is the death of others that sustains me, that makes me almost happy to be alive. And there's no end to it. As long as there are still people to kill in this great, wide, crowded world, I will never disappear."

In Gaara, I see only my anti-thesis, my opposite. Where he lives to kill people, I live to protect them. And I will certainly not shirk that duty right now. Naruto is scared, there is so much fear in his eyes that it's breaking my heart. So, I move over in front of Shikamaru, and I stand in front of both of them.

"You say that your purpose is to kill people, right?" I hold my arms up in front of me. "Then I think I know why you seem to hate me so much." The sand twitches in response to my words. _Bingo._ "If you want to kill anyone in this room, it'll have to be me first, because I'm not going to let you hurt them! I will protect them, all of them, even if it kills me!" But that said, I will not die so easily. I would be worthless as a protector if I died in the first battle. "So? what's it going to be? Will we be pitting ourselves against each other now? Or would you prefer an audience? Because the finals start tomorrow, and there's no way I'm going to lose."

The sand quivers some more, then rises suddenly into the air. The killing intent behind it is massive. But, this is going to be a perfect test of my own will. So, reaching deep inside myself, I reach for that power I felt when I last used Suzaku's wings. I will protect the boys, and then, if I must, I will turn his sand to ash.

But, just as I reach inside to pull out that power, Gai steps into the room and interrupts. "Alright, that's enough." And I'm not sure if I'm relieved that he's stopped the fight before it's started, or if I'm angry that he prevented me from putting Gaara down. "Save it for tomorrow, that's when the final competition begins. You're just wasting it, today. Is that what you want?" And just like that, Gaara's sand slumps to the floor, as if he has lost all motivation to kill. And from the feeling I'm getting, and the current lack of violent bloodlust, he has indeed lost the motivation to try and slaughter us. Not that I planned on letting him succeed.

Then, instead of bloodlust, it looks like Gaara is suffering from a headache. All of the sand withdraws back into the gourd, until Gaara finally calms. Then, he walks out, only looking back once. "All the same, I will kill you. Just you wait. I'll kill you all." He disappears down the hallway, taking his evil aura with him.

"Oh yeah...?" I smirk at the empty doorway. "Let's just see about that in the finals tomorrow..." Because as one demon vessel to another, I'm not going to just let him run rampant anymore. Even if that means that I have to put him down myself.

His days as a killer are numbered.


	44. Rewriting Destiny

**Wow, so, I've gotten hit a lot lately by my serial reviewers, that feels nice. So, first of all, to all of the shippers out there...Rycmika's Sasuke camp is located over that way (points off to the left), and Angel Sayori's Gaara camp is off that way (points to the right). If you would like to join these camps, feel free, though I expect a lot of fence hopping in the future, and some possible defections. But if you're expecting me to decide on the ship right this instant, I'm very sorry about that. Gotta let the story develop first before I let it sweep me away. Although, for any other Gaara lovers out there, don't worry, Ciara warms right up to him after this arc is over.**

 **Yes...the dragons...the lovely dragons. for anyone else wondering...I'll get to that later, when it's relevant (and by relevant, I mean when the issue actually starts to show up). From "Fairy" to "Dragon", that is her goal...and I'll let you guys try to figure out what that means.**

 **I'm glad people are liking the forehead kisses (or at least, no one is raging against it), because I find them rather sweet. In a...she's being a good nurse, and a good little cousin kind of way (not that he actually knows that for sure).**

 **Okay, so the way I'm going to do this is to split it up into four chapters. The first will largely focus on the introductions, as well as Naruto and Neji's match. The second will focus on Ciara and Akito's match. The third one, the matches between Shikamaru and Temari, as well as Hiro and Shino. And the fourth chapter in this segment will focus on Sasuke and Gaara's match, and the transition into the attack on the Leaf.**

* * *

So far, the fanfare for the finals has exceeded my expectations. In all of the worst possible ways. I wish that they would just let us fight, rather than make all of this noise about it. But that doesn't mean I don't understand why it's happening. The rich guys just want to make sure that everyone knows they're here, and to tell us that we should be honored by their presence. All a bunch of stupid noble crap, along with their fancy-ass palanquins, since they're all too lazy to just walk.

But, as I stand alongside those other competitors that have already arrived, I try to ignore the sounds of the crowd. I know that the preliminaries were pretty private, but I wasn't expecting quite so many spectators for the final rounds. And I'd bet an entire month's worth of mission money that more than a few of these spectators are already gambling on us. Which is stupid, because they haven't even seen any of us compete yet.

Arrogant assholes.

Though the problem at hand is hardly the pretentious nobles. It's Naruto. He's in the first match, and already, he's running late. _Damn it...I knew that I should have gotten him to walk here with me this morning..._

There's a huge commotion outside of the gates, and with a horrified yelp, Naruto comes sliding into the arena. He lands right at Shikamaru's feet, and I lean over with an eyebrow raised. "Uh...what happened to you?" He just groans, so I roll my eyes and grab his arm. "Alright, up you come, lazybones."

When he comes to his senses, he starts pointing towards the entrance. "Guys, run! You won't believe this, but there's a huge herd of stampeding bulls coming this way!"

I blink at Naruto, then sigh and shake my head. "Well, I suppose that explains the commotion. But it doesn't matter. If they come in here, then we've got plenty of ninja who can do something about it. Now why don't you get over here and stand in line. The matches are about to start."

He cringes abashedly as he notices that all eyes are on him. But, as usual, his mind wanders off immediately. "Hey, wait! Where's Sasuke?"

I sigh as I look around. _Where IS he? There's no way that he would just miss the finals? He was determined to get his fights..._ "I...don't know."

"Hey, knock it off." Our new proctor looks back at me and Naruto. "Quit your fidgeting. Stand up straight and present yourselves proudly to the spectators. You guys are the heroes of this final competition."

Naruto finally takes the chance to look around, and he registers the noise of the crowd's cheers. I doubt he's seen this many spectators in his life. Though, to me, it feels like we're a bunch of exotic animals being put on display. It's not really a nice feeling.

Then, Gramps appears on one of the upper balconies, probably to do the announcements. Again. "Welcome all, and our deepest thanks for coming here to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for this year's Chunin Selection Exam. We have come to the final competition between the ten candidates who made it through the preliminaries. We ask that no one leaves until all the matches have been completed. Now, everyone, enjoy!" He sure loves his speeches. Thankfully, this one was rather short. The only problem is that our current line-up is one candidate short.

Naruto raises his hand towards the proctor. "Uh, question! Question!"

The proctor raises an eyebrow as he chews on his toothpick. "What is it?"

"Um..." Naruto rubs his hair to hide his agitation. "I was just wondering...what'll happen to Sasuke...I mean, if he doesn't show up?"

The proctor chews on his toothpick a little longer. "If a candidate is not here in the arena at the time his name is called, he forfeits the match." Leaving us with that explanation, the proctor moves on and takes a look around. "Alright, listen up. The terrain's different, but the rules are the same as before. That is that there are no rules. The match continues until one candidate acknowledges defeat, or dies." That was pretty clear in the preliminaries, what with the injuries that came about as a result. "That bein' said, if I determine that a match is over, I can step in and stop it at any time. And no arguments permitted. Understood?" He gets no complaints, so he nods his head. "These are the opponents for the first match. Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga. Those two, stay. the rest of you can go to the waiting area."

So, with that, the crowd of candidates starts to disperse and head for the stairs. I linger a moment longer, and grin at Naruto. "See you in the next round?"

He offers me a small, but determined smile. "Yeah. I'll see you later."

Bolstered by his assertion, I follow my teammates to the stairs, and the three of us climb higher and higher towards the viewing gallery that will serve as our waiting area. I can feel the adrenaline starting to race through my body. It's exhilarating, but I know full well that I'm going to need to burn it off soon.

As we climb the last few stairs, Akito smiles at me. "So, I hope that you had a productive month."

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. "It was...interesting, to say the least. And I did pick up a trick that I hope you'll like."

"Oh?" He grins wider, and I get the feeling that his blood is pumping as well. "I look forward to seeing whatever you've learned, and whatever you've improved on."

"Hm..." I smile eagerly. "Well, then I'll make sure to please." We enter the viewing gallery, and I head straight for the railing so that I can sit down on it. And predictably, my teammates take positions on either side of me, being the protective teammates that they are. But this is fine, after all, the closer the two of them are, the faster I can get to them if something goes wrong.

I look down at the field, and it's impossible to hear Naruto or Neji at their normal vocal output. There's just too much distance to hear anything below an angry shout. That said, when Naruto holds out his fist towards Neji. "Only what I told you the last time. I vow to win!" Neji sinks into a fighting stance, but Naruto isn't having whatever he's spouting. "Are we gonna stand here talkin' all day? Let's get going! Show me what you got!" The wind picks up around the two of them, and I can almost feel Naruto's fury in it.

"Alright! Now let the first match begin!" The proctor waves his hand and backs away, giving the two of them appropriate room.

But for the first few moments, neither of them makes a move. Naruto just stands there, and Neji seems to be waiting for him to move first. Judging by what I saw the last time, the Gentle Fist seems to be quite effective when used in countering attacks, rather than in launching new ones.

"So, what do you think the outcome of this match is going to be?" Hiro smirks at me knowingly. "Do you think that your friend is going to win?"

"Of course." I look down at Naruto, confidence filling me. "There is no way that Naruto is going to let a little thing like the Gentle Fist stop him from getting his justice for Hinata."

Despite that, Naruto continues to just wait and watch, which is probably a smart move, something you normally wouldn't expect from him. Then, he moves, throwing three kunai right at Neji's face. Neji deflects two of them with a kunai of his own, only to catch the third in the circular end of the handle of his own knife.

Then, Naruto charges, going right after Neji with straight up martial arts and acrobatics. He fights with a barrage of blocked punches, getting in as close as he can, trying to land a decisive hit on Neji before he can employ the Gentle Fist. Then, Naruto takes a hit right to the chest that knocks him back, before Neji aims a strike towards his shoulder, making a direct hit.

Naruto rolls away, but judging by both of their movements, Neji somehow missed. And Naruto, bless his stamina, gets right back on his feet, and makes the sign for his shadow clones. And instant later, there are now five Naruto down there on the ground. And every single one of them is drawing a kunai.

Then, the chorus of Naruto begins. "Don't ever!" "Don't ever!" "And I mean never!" "Count me out!" And then, four of the five charge forwards fearlessly.

Neji vaults over the first two, and turns the next couple of clones away. He's clearly good at multi-directional combat, but Naruto's attempt at a kick to the chin falls just short, forcing the clones to attack again. Only this time, Neji takes one in the first move, and another two with a double palm strike. That leaves Naruto standing there all alone as Neji dispatches the last one.

Neji's voice, louder this time, reaches a scathing tone. "You thought you could be Hokage? It's absurd. Never." _This pompous little..._ "These eyes of mine show me many things. One thing they've shown me...people's limitations are set, fixed, and unchangeable. Only a fool wastes his time trying to become something he can never be." And only a fool believes that humans are trapped in stone, waiting to be sculpted by fate.

"A fool, huh?" Naruto has certainly been called worse, but it's Neji's arrogance that he's reacting to. "Here we go again! Who are you to judge who a person can or can't be!?"

"Do you think anyone can be Hokage? That all it takes is hard work?" Neji seems rather content to spit on Naruto's dreams. "Open your eyes. Of all the shinobi in all the world, think how few ever become Hokage. They were born...destined to be Hokage. It's not something you become merely by trying to become it. They were chosen by destiny. Each person is given his own path to follow, and he must follow it obediently, to the end." Neji is spouting the kind of ideals that would be unthinkable in the world I grew up in. "There is only one destiny we all share equally. Death."

"Yeah!? So what!? You can think that way if you want!" Naruto punches out his fist. "People always tell me I just don't know when to give up!" He brings his hands together one more time. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

And this time, there's a freaking two hundred of him, at least. Akito raises an eyebrow slightly. "Exactly how much chakra does that take? Because I can think of so many applications for this..."

I shake my head wearily. "Don't bother trying it. Naruto is the only person I know with the stamina to pull off this kind of crap. You might be able to get off a handful of your own, but never in the hundreds."

"Too bad..." Akito really does look rather put out bu that revelation. "So why do you think Naruto is going to win this match?"

"Why?" I raise an eyebrow at Akito.

"Yeah." He leans back against the railing. "You seem to have this almost blind faith in him. Where does that come from?"

"Oh..." _So that's it._ I look down into the arena with a smile. "Well, first of all, there's something to be said for both his mental and physical stamina. As long as he's still breathing, he'll never give up. Add to that, the fact that his mind works in rather...unconventional ways, only goes on to add an element of surprise to his strategies. And yes, while people seem to be content to believe that he's as dumb as a doornail, he does actually use strategies. It's just hard to see, because until he executes them, they don't seem to make a lot of sense. We're ninja, and that makes the element of surprise our ally. Naruto has that in spades, because he's not afraid to take the risks in order to get the big rewards, even when no one else would. He's also got an enormous chakra reservoir, and that's a big variable to consider. With that, he can pull off these crazy stunts, and still come out swinging." I feel like I've explained myself rather well. "His hard work, hidden natural talent, and unpredictable mind are what give me such faith in his ability to win. That, and..." I lean a little further over the railing. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't believe in him?"

By the end of my explanation, Akito is smiling gently. "Yeah, I guess I can see that..."

"Yeah..." I take a deep breath and open my mouth. "Come on, Naruto! You can do it!"

The crowd of Narutos cheer, and they start moving in to attack Neji. It's actually rather interesting to watch their exchanges, because there's a fluidity to Neji's movements that I find rather interesting. And applicable, so very applicable. Then, Neji races through the crowd, seemingly under the impression that he's going after the real Naruto, the one furthest from him. But I've had my eyes on the real Naruto, and he was part of the earlier fray.

"Well, looks like Neji's trying to end this quickly." Hiro leans on the railing and looks down with interest. "Think he's going to get a final shot this time?"

"On what? A clone?" I raise an eyebrow. "He's heading in the wrong direction."

"What?" Hiro blinks confusedly. "But he's heading for the one hanging back from the rest."

"Yeah...?" Then it dawns on me that I'm the one who knows Naruto's head inside and out. "Do you really think that someone as hyper and competitive as Naruto would just sit back and watch while his clones did all of the work?"

He blinks again, then turns his eyes downward as they widen. "He tricked him."

"Yep." And I'm proven correct when a lot of the clones start to disappear, including the one that Neji just struck in the chest. It's a delayed reaction of sorts, but it's definitely enough to freak out Neji by the looks of it. And I can hear some shocked gasps from the nearest seats in the stands. "Told you so. This is the real Naruto. Specializing in pranks, jokes, and getting the drop on people. And far too fond of dragging me into his hijinks."

Akito starts laughing as two more Naruto start charging towards Neji. "So, this is what you did with your spare time, huh? That explains the faith. His tactics are backwards and upside down, and you know it. It's literally a 'what would Naruto do?' situation, and you just pick the most absurd thing you can think of."

"Exactly!" Though, when his strike doesn't connect, and Naruto is thrown back by a dome of chakra, I frown. "What...was that?" There's an indent on the ground where he spun around, like he carved into the earth.

Undeterred, Naruto creates six more clones, who all spread out around Neji. They all charge in at once, only to be thrown back once more by that spinning chakra dome. Naruto quickly picks himself back up, only for Neji to enter a new stance. And in an instant, he charges, striking Naruto twice in the chest, then four times, double the number of strikes each time until he finally throws Naruto onto his back.

The proctor walks over, seeming to think that the match is over. But I know better. Naruto may be down, but he's not out yet. Hiro frowns slightly. "Looks like it's over."

"No...it's not over." I gaze down at Naruto, willing him to stand. _Get up, Naruto. Get up and show everyone who you really are! They've pushed you around and disregarded you ever since you were born. So now, it's time to show them all how wrong they were!_ "Get...UP!"

Tremors wrack Naruto's body as he struggles to stand. But despite Neji targeting his whole body's chakra system, Naruto manages to stand. He's doing it through sheer willpower. And Akito seems mildly impressed. "He's pretty tough."

"Yeah..." I smile down at him. "But he's also in this for his pride, Hinata's honor, and Lee's dreams. He's got a lot riding on this match, so there's no way he's going to just give up while he's still breathing."

The match slows to a calm, and Neji seems to be telling Naruto something. I can pick out the word 'curse', but not much else. that is, until he takes off his headband and reveals a green mark tattooed on his forehead. And it's at that point that I close my eyes, grit my teeth, and grip the railing hard. Because I've seen that mark before. And like the child I was, I naively touched it and asked if it hurt.

I say nothing while Neji airs the Hyuga Clan's dirty laundry to the public. _This...is what my father, grandfather, and great grandmother never allowed. For us...the main family is meant to protect its branches...not the other way around._ Because as I remember it, Dad was the one who made sure that everyone was happy. _Would he have been able to put a stop to this...? Or did he already try? Did they refuse to listen to reason?_ I have so many questions, but there is no one left who can answer them. I feel like I'm being left in a dark closet, where there are no answers, and only many more questions.

A hand finds my shoulder, and Akito's voice whispers into my ear. "It's over, he's stopped talking."

Slowly, I open my eyes, only to see Naruto flying across the field. Neji makes to walk away, thinking he's won. But Naruto picks himself up out of the dirt, breathing hard. Neji speaks of destiny, but I know well that Naruto is determined to carve his own destiny. And to hell with anyone else's standards, because he is not a failure. A failure would never be able to get this far.

Neji's voice becomes shrill and vicious. "You don't know what it's like to be branded with a mark that sets you apart! A mark that can never be wiped away!"

 _Ignorant fool... Though I suppose that no one our age knows who Naruto is...apart from me._ I look down at Neji with contempt in my eyes and in my heart. _If you think to speak so lightly of Naruto, then you will find out the hard way that Naruto has more curses and marks on him than you can imagine._

Naruto breathes hard, but for now, he's silent. And it actually hurts to watch. Then, he opens his eyes and looks up. His first few words are barely more than a whisper, but his voice soon grows stronger. "Man, you think you've got troubles?" My ears strain to hear his words. "I've got news for you, Neji. you're not the only special one around here." The same can be said for many of the ones present here today. And I have to wonder if it's arrogance that drives Neji to try and elevate himself above the rest. Of course, those musings will have to wait, as Naruto barges right into a spiel over Hinata. I can't blame him, I know how much damage Neji did to her that day.

He may have had his chakra blocked, but there's no way he's going to just shut up and sit down. And as he calms himself down and stops moving, I have my suspicions about what he's trying to pull. _Are you seriously going to do this right here, right now!? Are you going to use the Fox's chakra in front of everyone!?_ Sure, it'll probably work, but it means that he'll out himself to everyone in our year who is currently sitting in the stands.

If he outs himself now, then the secret isn't going to be a secret anymore.

I clasp my hands together and sway slightly as he groans with the effort. "Naruto...be careful..."

Akito glances at me curiously. "That's a tone I haven't heard before. What's going on?" Hiro looks over as well, looking just as curious as Akito.

I feel small spikes of power coming from Naruto, confirming my worries. "Let's call it...a trump card, a last resort." I swallow nervously. "And something that you do not want to be on the receiving end of." _Please, please, please don't let him try to summon a toad right now. I think that Gamabunta would crush this whole arena._

Thankfully, it doesn't look like Naruto is going to be going for a summoning. But his chakra still flares as the Fox's chakra floods his system. _He must be forcing open all of his chakra points so that the chakra can flow again._ It's a great idea, if that's what he's doing.

My own chakra flares a little, and I feel kind of excited by the power coming off of Naruto. The reddish chakra flares around him, and a certain malice fills the air. _So...you're really going to go all out and use that power._ My heart pounds and I almost feel like I'm floating. And that feeling is intensified when little gusts of wind start swirling around our viewing gallery.

But, from the looks of it, Gaara is feeling the excitement as well, he's twitching over on the other side of the box. It's actually kind of awesome, because his chakra starts flaring a bit too. It's like all of our demons are trying to talk to each other. Or maybe rip each other's throats out. It's a toss up.

With the chakra waving in all directions and curling around Naruto, it comes together to make something of a cloak, one that envelops his whole body. The air thrums with power, and Naruto disappears into the air, dozens of times faster than he was before. The two of them start tossing shuriken around, not that they do anything but provide distractions. Then, the two of them come together, tossing kunai and shuriken between them.

With something along the lines of a last-ditch effort, Naruto charges Neji, moving in close and slashing at him with a kunai. Neji goes to defend, and as offense meets defense, the two of them clash, their chakra slamming into each other and kicking up a huge cloud of dust as the entire arena shakes with the force of the collision.

Two forms fly out of the cloud of smoke, making two craters. Out of one, pops Neji, and in the other, lies Naruto. Neji definitely looks the worse for wear, but Naruto would appear to be unconscious. I watch with a raised eyebrow. "I'm surprised that Neji survived that. I mean...all things considering..."

"Yeah...but..." Hiro points to the other crater. "Naruto is down for the count."

"I wouldn't be so sure..." After all, this is the ninja who was famous for his pranks. He even drew boogers on the Hokage stone faces. At this point, there is very little that I would put past Naruto.

"Okay..." Hiro looks down as Neji comes to stand over Naruto.

 _Wait a minute...is that a-_ Then, Naruto pops right up out of the ground and socks Neji with a powerful left hook right to the chin that sends him flying. I cringe slightly. "Ouch." That seriously looked like it could have knocked teeth out.

Everyone else is staring down there, wide-eyed. then, Akito slap his palm to his face. "Okay, I'm never underestimating him ever again."

"Good call, you'll live longer that way." I grin at the sight of Naruto down there on the field. "I think this match has taught everyone not to underestimate him. If anything, overestimate him, you'll be more likely to win that way." The Naruto in the hole disappears, proving that it was a shadow clone that he'd left there to trick everyone. And underneath the clone is the hole that Naruto dug in order to pull off his sneak attack.

I breathe a sigh of relief as my chakra calms down. And the proctor raises his hand. "The winner is Naruto Uzumaki." And in response to that announcement, and the cheering of the crowd, Naruto starts running around, waving his hands through the air. That dummy's stamina really is incredible. But I suppose that it can be forgiven, since he's finally getting some of the acknowledgement that he's always been craving.

It's great. Like I expected, Naruto is moving on to the next round. But speaking of the next round...we need to get on to the next match. There's only one problem.

 _Where the hell is Sasuke?_


	45. The Wrong Kind of Team Battle

**Up next, Ciara and Akito. That means that this battle is written entirely from scratch. It's going to feature some old moves, some new ones, and some new twists on old techniques. I hope you guys enjoy the thought that I've put into this chapter, because trust me, it's hard to write fights from scratch. I've actually been putting the steps together since yesterday. I've been ticking off a big list of all the things that need to happen in the match, big and small.**

 **Keep in mind, though, that they are trying not to kill each other. But even if they're holding back from using outright lethal force, they're not going to just pull their punches. They each know that the other is tough, they trust each other to be able to survive just about anything they throw at each other. Within reason, of course.**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

With not even a hint of fear, I jump over the railing of the viewing gallery, which is easily fifty feet above the ground, and down to the field where Naruto is running around like a maniac. "Hey! Naruto!" I wave my hand back and forth to get his attention. "Over here!"

He stops running, turns around, and grins at me, rubbing his hair with a slight blush on his face, likely from all that running around. "Oh, hey! What are you doing down here?"

"I'm here for you, dummy." I grab hold of his hands and yank them towards me. And as I look down at them, I tsk disapprovingly. "Look what you've done...you've ripped up all of your nails! What are you, an animal!?" He gives me a weird look, kind of like a pout, before both of us break into grins and start laughing like a couple of idiots. "Anyway, I'll clean you up a bit." I reach back into my medical bag and pull out a few wet towelettes. They're only lightly antiseptic, so they shouldn't sting much. Plus, I doubt that there's an infection that the Fox's chakra can't keep out of his system. At least, that's my assumption for why he never seems to get sick, unless he purposely gives himself food poisoning,

Although, to be fair, if I were the Fox, I probably wouldn't heal him if he gave himself food poisoning. That's the kind of thing that you do to yourself. and if you're stupid enough to drink expired milk, then you deserve to suffer the consequences. Or...something like that.

I run the wet napkins over Naruto's hands, cleaning the dirt and blood from his fingers. He managed to split several of his nails, but I think that I might be able to seal them back together. Once all of the grime is gone, I squeeze his hands lightly, and a faint light fills the air. Slowly, the skin starts to regrow on his fingertips, and the nails start sealing themselves back up.

Once the injuries have been taken care of, I sigh and shake my head. "Jeez, you're a reckless one, aren't you?"

"You know it!" He laughs right in my face, and it lightens my heart a little.

The crowd, on the other hand, sounds like its getting rather impatient. And I know why. It's because they want to get on to the next match. But from the looks of it, Sasuke still isn't here. _Please tell me that he's just picking up Kakashi's bad habit of being late..._ Then, I reconsider. _Actually, please let this be a one time thing. I don't think the world can handle a second perpetually late ninja._

Another ninja comes down to the field, whispers something in the proctor's ear, then disappears. _Well, that's not suspicious at all..._ The proctor then turns to face the crowd. "Listen, everyone! One of the competitors from the next battle has not arrived yet. So, we're going to postpone this match briefly, and simply jump ahead to the battle that would have followed this one."

The decision shocks me a little, but Naruto breathes a sigh of relief. "That's good." _He must be happy that Sasuke isn't getting disqualified..._ _But...where is he? It's not like him to be late for something so important._

"Then, on to the next battle!" The proctor looks at me, then up into the viewing gallery. "Akito Takara, please come down here!"

"Alright!" But, instead of doing things like me, he takes his time and goes for the stairs instead.

Since we've got a little time, Naruto punches me lightly in the shoulder, a smile plastered on his face. "You've gotta win, remember? If you don't, then we won't get to fight the final match!"

"Yeah, yeah..." I smile softly at him. I still don't like the idea of going up against one of my teammates. Although, there is a certain security in it. It means that there's a guarantee that no one is going to end up dead at the end of this match.

Naruto continues to grin as he backs away from me, heading for the stairs. It's probably best that he be back up there by the time Akito gets down here, because knowing his skills, and knowing my own, this is going to end up being a ninjutsu-centered battle. After all, he has little to no genjutsu skills, and my taijutsu skills continue to leave something to be desired. So, ninjutsu is our common ground.

 _Maybe I can get him to teach me how to wield lightning when the exams are over..._

Just as the thought crosses my mind, Akito makes his way to the bottom of the stairs and walks out onto the field, a smile plastered all over his face. "So, looks like we're having our match a little early today."

"Looks like..." I look up into the stands, where some of the crowd is displeased by the postponing of Sasuke's match, while some more of the crowd seems to be staring at me. Then again, that might just be my imagination. Being stalked by Gaara is probably making me paranoid.

He patsme on the shoulder and flashes me that confident smile. "Let's make this a good match, alright? And no matter who wins what today, the three of us go out for dinner tomorrow, alright?" It's been so long since the three of us last had dinner together. Though I guess that we took the separate training schedules to the extreme.

"Yeah..." His attitude makes me feel calm and excited at the same time. It's a funny feeling, but one that I think I like. "Just don't cry when I kick your butt." He chuckles lightly at my challenge as he heads off towards our starting positions. It's finally time to get the match that's been keeping our team apart for a month over with. Because I'm sick and tired of not seeing my team around.

The two of us move to the center of the field, where the proctor meets us. He turns to the crowd and raises his voice. "Our second match of the day will be Ciara Shiryugu and Akito Takara." The proctor looks from me to Akito, and then back again. "Jeez, you guys are teammates, right? Tough luck." He sighs slightly. "Alright, if you're ready, you may begin." He steps back a bit, and honestly, I kind of want to warn him to get back near the wall, or even off the ground. Because this fight is not going to be tame. For the sake of safety, I back up an extra ten feet, and Akito does the same. We get our distance, a reasonable one, before we actually start planning our offensives.

I watch Akito as he watches me, the two of us just waiting for the slightest twitch. After about twenty seconds, it looks like neither of us is going to make the first move. So, I smirk slightly. _I know what you're doing, Akito..._ He's not big on making the first move unless he knows that he can win in a single shot. That's something that the two of us have in common. Unlike Naruto, who just rushes into things without thinking them through.

That leaves everything to me, so I sink down, ready to get this match started. In a flash, I reach both my hands into my shuriken holsters, pulling out four shuriken that I stash between my thumb and index finger, as well as my middle and ring fingers on each hand. But as I whip my hands forward, Akito mirrors my movement, and I see small rings of black between his fingers.

The shuriken leave my hands as I spring backwards, and fly across the field, heading straight for Akito. His own shuriken meet them in mid-air, and all eight of them clash in a shower of sparks, before being embedded deeply into the dirt. _Alright...so his weapons can come flying at me almost as fast as mine can fly. I don't have enough of an advantage there to use speed against him._ Moving the human body at high speed is one thing, but apply it to an object once it leaves your control is rather different.

That leaves another option, so I reach into my holsters once more and take the last four shuriken that I stashed in there. _Alright, let's see how you handle this!_ I release them in a flash of light, wind chakra spinning around them as they zoom towards Akito. If they hit him, they'll hurt, but I didn't put so much chakra into them that they'll kill him on impact.

A crackling sound whizzes through the air, and halfway between the two of us, the eight new shuriken collide. But instead of sparks, this time, there's an explosion where they meet. _Did he...?_ Judging by the weird crackling sound, it can only be one thing. _He charged those shuriken with lightning!_ It feels kind of good to have him whipping out the lightning already. It means that he's at least taking me half seriously so far.

And the sign that he's taking me completely seriously is when he draws a kunai and races towards me, using his speed to try and get under my guard. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't work, and I pull Shisui's tanto from its sheath, running wind chakra along the hilt to strike against the kunai coated in crackling light blue lightning. I know that I can't hold this position for long. akito is bigger and stronger than I am, and there's no way that I can compensate for that, at least not on my own.

So, I leap back several times, getting some distance from him again. Then, I notice that I'm right next to the crater that Naruto made when he and Neji hit the dirt. _Oh...I think I can work with that._ As I start judging my options, Akito comes racing at me again, forcing me to make a split second decision.

My hands flash through the air, and I inhale deeply. "Fire Style: Meteor Shower!"

Akito stops in his tracks and makes to jump into the air to dodge my attack. But instead of aiming it straight at him, I aim the fireballs into the ground, directing them through the tunnel that Naruto made, and out of the hole that Akito has barely noticed he nearly stepped on.

"Shit!" He narrowly dodges the fireballs, and his clothes look singed in more than a few places. He jumps back several paces, trying to escape the reversed hail of fireballs. A frustrated expression decorates his face, along with a couple of angry red patches, clearly from letting those fireballs get a little too close. I think I can also smell a little bit of burning hair. _Hah, let's see how you deal with that!_ Though the truth is that I'll have to deal with that, since I'm the one who'll be healing him after the match.

Akito takes in a deep breath and shoves the kunai back into his pouch. Then, a grin blooms on his face as he leans down, his hand forming signs. "Sorry about this, Ciara. But I know that if I take it easy on you, you'll just get mad at me for it later." He slams his palms against the ground. "Lightning Style: Field of Sparks!"

 _Field of..._ Then it hits me, and not a second too soon. I focus chakra in my feet and jump into the air, my hands already moving. "Wind Style: Air Cushion!" I breathe out the invisible cushion that breaks my fall and keeps me suspended off the ground. Then, I shoot wind chakra out of my foot, piercing the invisible shell. And like air escaping from a balloon, it shoots me high into the air, and over towards the trees, where I land safely out of reach of the lightning currently tearing across the ground.

I look carefully at this new jutsu he's gone and mastered. It's not one I've ever seen before, but from the looks of it, he's gone and electrified the ground. That could definitely be a problem, since I have no idea how long the lightning can linger down there. One wrong step, and I might get myself electrocuted.

 _Well, I guess I'm just lucky that there's no water around, otherwise that combination could have been deadly._ Akito may have a talent for water jutsu, but even he can't conjure it out of thin air. That takes way too much chakra.

For now, I'm safe in the trees, and he's in the middle of the arena, obviously waiting for me to come out of hiding. In the trees, I certainly have the advantage with my superior agility and smaller size. That gives me a little time in here to come up with a new plan. And I most definitely need a new plan.

 _Okay...so what I need to do is get him to stop the jutsu. And for that, I'll need to subdue him. He's my teammate, so I don't want to hurt him. Well, beyond maybe hurting his pride a little. So I need to subdue him in a way that forces him to give up._ And it's here that I'll have to draw on my medical ninjutsu and my knowledge of the human body. _If I can target the most vulnerable points on the body, I can force him to submit without a prolonged fight. But to do that, I need a distraction. And I need a way to pin him down so that he can't just sweep me off my feet._

All in all, it's a rather tall order. But if this were a mission, it would be completely understandable for circumstances like this to occur. Capturing a target alive, and preferably with minimal injuries to the capturing party, who will be needed to escort the target back. The only problem here, is that there's only one of me.

 _One of me..._

Suddenly, the idea dawns on me, and the plans begins to take color with every mental detail that I add. _Oh...this is going to be perfect. Not only can I catch him off guard with a jutsu that I've never used before, but I definitely have enough chakra to do it, and I won't have to push it to my limit. All I need is five..._

I press my hands together in a familiar hand sign that I learned from someone who means the world to me. _Thanks a lot, Naruto._ And as my chakra flares, five clones appear in the branches of the trees. _That should be enough..._ I motion to four of the clones, who all nod, before disappearing from their branches.

 _This should definitely be enough to turn the odds in my favor._

* * *

Naruto's P.O.V.

"What is she doing...?" Ciara just disappeared into the trees after her teammate shot lightning into the ground. Now, it's been quiet for over a minute, and no one knows what the hell is going on.

"Well, whatever she's up to, it had better be something good." Shikamaru looks over the railing with his brows furrowed. "Because that lightning trap is something else..."

"Yeah..." I mean, I saw that cool lightning attack that Kakashi-Sensei used, but this is way different. It's like he attacked the ground with it. And it's gotta be dangerous, otherwise Ciara wouldn't have jumped into the trees like that. "Wait..." There's some movement in the trees. "What's that?"

"What are you-" Shikamaru's mouth drops open. "No way..."

There's four of them, four Ciara clones racing along the walls of the arena. they skid to a stop for just a second, before all four of them make the exact same hand signs. "Wind Style: Waxing Crescent Dance!" The four of them leap off the walls, twirling through the air as they release big wind blades from their hands and feet.

"Whoa..." Shikamaru watches with wide eyes. "Is that what she used during the preliminaries?"

"Yep!" I grin proudly. "But she only did a little bit of it! I didn't think that she was going to use shadow clones for this!"

"Shadow clones?" Hiro, her other teammate, frowns at me. "But she doesn't know how to use shadow clones."

"She does now!" I cross my arms and smirk at him. "While we were training, I taught her how to make them!" I mean, I know that she can only make like eight of them right now, but I only see four, so she'll be fine.

Her teammate, on the other hand, is flipping and jumping around, trying to dodge all of the wind blades. These ones aren't the sharp ones, so they won't cut him in half or anything. But I remember what she did on the bridge back in the Land of Waves. And those wind blades looked like they hurt. So I can't blame him for not wanting to get hit by one of them. He's probably seen those in action more than I have. That probably explains why so many of the wind blades are colliding with each other. He's making the clones' attacks hit each other when he dodges them.

"Oh...Akito is in trouble now..." Hiro looks like he wants to pout, but also like he wants to throw a party. "Ciara is doing a lot better than I thought she would. Then again, I had no idea that she'd learned to make shadow clones. There's only a few of them, but they're working well."

 _Right...that's two of his teammates fighting down there. It must be hard for him to pick a side._ "So...who are you cheering for?"

Hiro blinks confusedly at me. "What do you mean who am I cheering for? I just want those two to come out of this fight in one piece." He shrugs slightly. "I mean, I know that they're not going to try and kill each other or anything, but if one of them gets hurt, the other is going to feel really guilty about it."

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

Phases one of the place is now nearly complete. Akito has been tired out, and the clones are starting to fall out of the sky. So I look at my last clone and nod. And in mirrored movements, the two of us draw twin tanto, before racing out of the trees in a gust of wind. It's best to use wind chakra around my feet to try and not only speed up my own movements, but also to minimize whatever impact touching the ground will have on my body, or that of my clone.

As the two of us get close to Akito, my other clones self-destruct, surrounding him in a cloud of smoke, while at the same time, bombarding me with the images that all of the recorded while launching their attacks. For example, I know that during one of the assaults, Akito nearly twisted his left ankle, and it now limping ever so slightly.

So, before the smoke disappears, my clone and I slide into position, the remnants of the electricity in the ground tickling my feet unpleasantly, the four tanto, two real, and two clones, point towards Akito's vital spots. One at his back, one at his chest, and one on either side of his neck, all of the easiest places to bleed an enemy dry from. And just to make sure that he can't pull anything, my clone's foot is hooked behind his left ankle, ready to yank him off balance if need be.

The smoke disappears, and Akito is standing there, eyes wide, and hands slightly away from his body. "What-"

"Aorta!" I make sure that everyone can hear exactly what I'm saying. "Pulmonary artery! Carotid artery! Jugular veins!" Then, I lower my voice slightly. "I've got blades pointed at the blood vessels connected to your heart, lungs, and brain. One slip of a blade, and you'll bleed out in minutes."

"Ha...nice one." He sighs slightly, or as well as he can, with his neck craning away from the blades. "Alright, I surrender. You win."

The proctor, who earlier had to take refuge on one of the walls, walks over to us as I lower my weapons and allow my last clone to disappear. "Well, that was certainly an interesting match." He watches me with a curious eye. "Winner, Ciara Shiryugu!"

With the match called, I twirl the tanto around and slide them both back into their sheaths. Then, rather than allowing the proctor to clear the field and start the next match, I trip Akito and send him falling onto his butt. "Now, time to get to work."

He blinks at me bemusedly. "What are you doing?"

"Hm?" I rummage around in my bag, looking for bandages. "Oh, one of my clones saw you nearly twist your ankle earlier. So I thought that it would be better to be safe than sorry." I pull out the bandages and yank up the leg of his pants to expose his left ankle. "So hold still for a minute."

The proctor's eye twitches. "Hey, can you two clear the field first?"

"No." I hold my ground without even looking at the proctor, my eyes focused solely on the injury in front of me. "If this were a real battlefield, I would have to do first aid immediately, there would be no time to retreat and do it. And since your no rules rule seems to insist on us treating these matches as though they were fought on a real battlefield, I will abide by those factors." I feel that my conclusion is logical, even if no one else does.

"I see..." I see him nod out of the corner of my eye. "Alright then, I'll give you another minute."

"Thank you." Though, were this really a battlefield, and he an enemy, I would, of course, have dealt with him first before patching up Akito. There's no point in patching him up if the both of us end up dead. I finish up the bandaging and nod in approval. "Alright, you should be good to go. Sorry...if you were the one that won the match..." Then I would have healed him completely without a second thought.

"It's alright, save your chakra." He pats me on the head. "I know that you burned through a lot of it with that stunt you pulled. Which, by the way, was a really cool one."

"Thanks..." I smile slightly and let him set the pace as we head towards the stairs. Thankfully, this is going to be my last fight for a while, since we still have to go through Shikamaru and Temari, then Hiro and Shino, as well as Sasuke and Gaara, if Sasuke can manage to show up. Then, after that, Naruto will be facing whoever wins the match between Gaara and Sasuke, and the winners of the next two matches will have to battle it out before I have to fight again. But then, if I win that one, I'll end up fighting two matches back to back, which is going to be pretty rough.

Especially considering who my three potential opponents are...


	46. Counting Down to Disaster

**Yes, I am doing my best to update as much as possible while I have both the motivation and the time, because next week is going to be homework hell, and I've got midterms coming up far too quickly. Such as the history midterm I have tomorrow.**

 **This chapter is going to be a bit packed, since there are two matches in it, but I'll try to make it entertaining. Especially the second part, which I'll be writing from scratch.**

* * *

It might just be me, but I think that I'm still riding the high from the thrill of the match. That's not to say that I took any particular pleasure in kicking my teammate's butt. I just think that I did really well in that match, and I hope that it went over really well with the judges. I played it with power, I played it with brains, and all in all, I think that I showed off decently for the crowd. After all, they sure as hell weren't booing Sasuke's absence once me and Akito really got going.

But...maybe I'm just thinking all of that because I'm stoked by my win.

The two of us finally reach the viewing gallery, only to hear the vicious booing of the crowd. _Whoa...what's going on now?_ I look over to where Naruto is standing, looking far too proud of himself. "Naruto...what did you do?"

He points down and grins. "I just gave Shikamaru a little help, that's all."

I look over the side of the railing, to see Shikamaru lying flat on the ground, with Temari standing there waiting for him. And I can almost feel the blood draining from my face. "Naruto...did you push Shikamaru over the side?"

"He needed a little encouragement!" Naruto grins like he's done absolutely nothing wrong.

Some days, I really do need to stomp down the urge to throttle my best friend. "Naruto, are you crazy!? You could have killed him!"

The crowd is getting rather agitated, again, it's probably because Sasuke still isn't here. _Well, he's certainly popular, isn't he?_ Shikamaru, on the other hand, looks like he just wants to leave and go have a nap. There's no way he's going to fight this battle through to completion, he's got absolutely no motivation.

Though, that doesn't mean that the crowd has to go and throw trash at him. That's just rude. And gross. And honestly, I think that half the crowd should get in trouble for littering, because this is just stupid, and there are clearly garbage cans dotting the stands.

As Shikamaru lies there, doing nothing, Naruto starts getting agitated. "Come on, come on! Get up and fight! Get it together, Shikamaru! Are you gonna get going sometime this year!?"

I shake my head and stare apathetically at Naruto. "I hope that you realize that you're being no different than those idiots throwing garbage at him from the stands."

But, someone else seems to be just as impatient as Naruto. Temari. And without waiting for the proctor to even officially start the match, she grabs her fan and charges towards Shikamaru. Only when he notices her coming, does he finally move. He tosses two kunai up into the wall and waits for her to get close, before disappearing out from under here, propping himself up out of her reach by standing on top of the two kunai stuck in the wall.

Whatever Shikamaru says to her must wind her up pretty good, because she swings her fan at him again, kicking up yet another cloud of dust. And when it clears, he's gone again, this time hiding himself in the shadows of the trees. _So...looks like he's using my tactic to regroup..._

But Shikamaru just sits there in the shadows for a while, looking rather bored. And Naruto is bored as well. But unlike Shikamaru, who gets quiet when he's bored, Naruto gets loud. "Get your butt in gear! Let's go, Shikamaru!"

Temari raises her fan, sweeping it across her field of vision, and blowing wind into the trees, trying to flush Shikamaru out. What she gets in return is Shikamaru's shadow chasing after her. She races backwards, trying to dodge it, until it stops, unable to stretch any further.

She marks the ground with her fan, displaying the range of his jutsu. Now, it's becoming something of a game of patience, because it looks like the both of them are using tactics to try and make it through this match. _Alright...so what's on Shikamaru's mind...?_

Then, Shikamaru starts moving once more, reaching back into his weapons pouch. _So...done thinking, are you? I wonder what you're planning..._ My eyes drift over to the holes from earlier. _Well, I hope you at least make use of the little trap that Naruto was so kind as to provide us with. It would be a shame to let all of his hard work go to waste._

In response to his movements, Temari swings her fan once more, blowing more wind into the trees. And I have to admit that she's got quite the effective tool for using wind style jutsu. But on a personal note, I find it a little bulky and cumbersome. I like to feel the wind around me when I use it, to conduct it with my own body. Using a tool to do it, like shuriken, kunai, or even a fan, make the experience much less enjoyable.

Shikamaru runs further into the trees, trying to escape the blade-like winds. And as Temari goes for a round two, weapons fly out of the trees, forcing her to pull back briefly. And in that defensive position, she's assaulted once more by an approaching shadow, that this time, reaches far beyond the original fifteen or so meters that she'd mapped out earlier. _Now why would it..._

At first, it seems a bit strange. Until, that it, my eyes turn to the sky. _Oh...right. It's afternoon. The sun's going down._ He must be taking advantage of the increasing shadows as the day wanes to extend his range. It's a good idea, though I don't know how much help it'll be to him. I doubt that this fight will go on until the entire arena is cast in shadow, because by then, I'm certain that the both of them will be long out of chakra. Especially at the rate that they've been expending it.

She maps out the new distance, and seems to get comfortable with that. Now, she'll be on her guard, and keep the time in mind. On the other hand, she's getting dangerously close to the slightly scorched ground surrounding the two holes in the ground. Someone is going to have to fill those in once the finals are over, otherwise someone might accidentally step in one. And bad things happen when you step in things you aren't supposed to.

"So...it looks like it's a battle of the brains down there." Akito's eyes flick between the lazy genius and the ruthless tactician. "But...do you think that she can win? I mean, she may be smart, but she seems to be letting her emotions get the better of her."

I can see Akito's point. Shikamaru is the kind of genius whose emotions are, at best, slow-moving. But most of the time, he's got an apathy that's hard to shake. Though I suppose that there's something to be said for his laziness being the reason that he can keep calm. Temari, on the other hand, seems to be getting both cocky and frustrated in equal measure, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing for the accuracy of her predictions, or the viability of her judgment.

Then, something in the sky catches my eyes, and I nudge Akito and Hiro in the ribs. "Look up."

"Huh?" The both of them look up, and Hiro snickers. "Well...that's certainly an interesting idea." A kunai with Shikamaru's overshirt attached to it floats down slowly above our heads. The shirt is attached to it like a parachute, slowing the fall of the kunai.

It's just like when Shikamaru used Kin's thread as a conduit for his shadow. Only this time, he made the conduit himself. And as it slowly sinks lower and lower, the makeshift parachute starts to cast a shadow on the ground.

And it doesn't take long for Kankuro to notice it as well, having accompanied his teammates to the viewing gallery. "Temari, above you!"

Shikamaru uses the extra distance that it gives him to chase Temari around the field. And he seems to be driving her suspiciously close to those two holes. _So...is he actually planning on using them? Can his shadows use them as tunnels? Or do shadows cancel each other out if they're dark enough?_ I have to admit that I have some questions about the mechanics of Shikamaru's shadow jutsu. For example, whether a shadow can exist in pure darkness or not. It's more a question of whether or not a shadow can exist in the darkness without a light source, or whether it's just another part of the darkness at that point. And from there, whether or not Shikamaru can control it like that.

Shikamaru's shadow runs out of range just as he pushes Temari in front of the hole furthest from him. And with his range stopped for now, Temari plants her fan in the ground and hides behind it. And Shikamaru, knowing full well what his range is, draws his shadow back.

It seems that my earlier musings about the abilities of this particular jutsu will be answered, because as the shadow draws back towards Shikamaru, it dives deep into the hole in Naruto's crater from earlier. _Well, well, well, looks like Shikamaru has caught himself a mouse in the trap...or maybe a bear. She's vicious..._

I smirk a little and try to hold back my laughter. "Nicely done, Shikamaru..." _Way to use the terrain to your advantage._

Temari looks like she has no idea what just hit her. Shikamaru has hold of her now, and he's even courteous enough to turn to look over his shoulder, forcing her to do the same, so that she can see the hole that the shadow is pouring out of. Naruto's little trick from earlier.

I shoot Naruto a grin. "Looks like that little stunt of yours helped in two matches."

"Really, you think so?" Naruto blushes a little and rubs his head abashedly. "Well, glad to help!"

 _But..._ I frown slightly. _Now that you've caught her, what are you going to do? She's too far away from a wall to bend backwards and knock her out. So are you going to find another way to end the match? Or..._ He walks forward, bringing the two of them closer together. And the shadows retreat somewhat, linking them together from a smaller distance. But this is the fourth time he's used the jutsu, and it looks like it takes a lot of chakra to maintain. Not to mention dodging and hiding from all of her attacks.

 _So, do you have a plan? Or are you all out of moves now that you've captured her?_

"Yeah! He did it!" Naruto punches his fist into the air. "He pulled off an upset!"

"Well...I suppose he did..." I glance over at Akito, then Hiro, lowering my voice. "But...just because he's caught her, doesn't mean that the match is over. Unless she surrenders, he still has to knock her out. And I don't know if he can pull that off." _If he had a partner down there, it would be another story, they would be able to subdue her while he's got her immobilized. But he's all alone down there..._

Shikamaru raises his hand into the air, forcing Temari to do the same. And his voice increases in volume. "Okay, that's it! I give up."

I sigh a little at the sound of those words. "Of course he does..." _He could probably hit her and knock her out, she is a fair bit taller than him, after all._ I'm not sure if he's being lazy, gallant, or both.

For a moment, the crowd is completely silent. And then, the uproar begins. Shikamaru lowers his hand and shrugs about something, his voice far too low to hear over the crowd. The proctor, on the other hand, has no problem making himself heard. "The winner is Temari!"

The crowd goes nuts with outrage over the end of the last match, and that same ninja from earlier appears next to the proctor, whispering something in his ear. It's probably an update, or a lack of one on Sasuke's whereabouts. The crowd must be getting antsy with the absence of what, to them, is certainly one of the main attractions.

Hiro smirks weakly as he looks over the side. "Well, someone is sure taking his time. You think something happened to him?"

"I hope not..." I grip the railing, and my eyes scan the crowd futilely, searching for that spiky raven hair. "Anyway, since he's not here yet, it looks like you're up." The proctor waves up to us, beckoning Shino and Hiro down to the field.

"Yeah, and I think I'll take the stairs, if you don't mind." He shudders a little, probably at the thought of being thrown down into the arena like Shikamaru.

"Good call. Oh, and keep an eye on those holes. They've been used in every match so far, and they'd make a good place to launch a sneak attack from. Stay away from the trees too, insects love trees." I pat his back as he moves away from the railing and heads down the stairs. _Now..._ I look around and can't see Naruto anywhere. _Where did he run off to? Did he go to meet up with Shikamaru?_

But there's not much time to wonder about that, as Hiro emerges from the hallway below, and makes his way out onto the field, along with Shino. Now, we all saw Shino and his bugs at the preliminaries, so I've got a good idea about how Shino is going to go about fighting.

From what I can tell, Shino is like me, in the respect that his taijutsu leaves something to be desired. Similarly, I would apply that label to Kankuro. Although, rather than the two of them being small, and unable to make proper use of it, I would say that it's more that they're specialized in forms of combat that require no physical contact of their own with the enemy. Something along the line of having minions to fight their battles for them.

That could either be a massive advantage, or a complete disaster for Hiro. When it comes to close combat, he can put even wild animals down pretty quickly. I shiver slightly at the memory of this one time that we ran into a bear while we were up in the mountains, rescuing one of those hikers. Hiro caught the bear by surprise by leaping out of a tree, and managed to smash the thing's skull in. Of course, that was a single animal, rather than the pack that we encountered in the forest of death.

But...it's not like he's about to go up against a pack of wild tigers here. No, it's just a genin with a bug fixation. Whose bugs can apparently suck out chakra. _Yeah...Hiro is gonna need to avoid that. The last thing he needs is severe chakra depletion._

The proctor looks at the both of them as they approach the center of the arena. "The fourth match. Hiro Kazaki and Shino Aburame." Fourth, because Sasuke is still conspicuously absent.

As the match begins, Shino doesn't move, though Hiro slides back into a basic combat stance. Even from here, I can see his eyes moving around, obviously on the lookout for bugs. And since this is an open-air arena, they could literally come from any direction. He's going to have to play this smart if he wants any chance of defeating Shino.

I lean over towards AKito nervously. "You and Hiro have talked about his match with Shino, right? I mean, he's not walking into this blind, is he?"

"Nah, he'll be fine." Akito grins confidently. "We went over the bug basics, and I told him everything I know about the Aburame Clan. Granted, it's not as much as I would like, but it should give him a good chance at winning this."

"Good..." I'd hate for Hiro to be going into this with only the meager advice that I'd sent him off with. "Well, then let's see who I might be going up against in the next round."

Akito snorts slightly. "Well, if it's Hiro, then I'm sure you'll be fine. After all, it's not like the three of us are trying to kill each other."

"Yeah." My eyes flick down to the ground, where Shino finally seems to be on the move. And the reason for it? Hiro is already moving.

Hiro moves quickly as bugs start to fill the air, before his hands move, and he takes a particularly hard step, stomping his foot into the ground, and disappearing into it. I smirk at the sight. _And to think, he won't ruin his nail like Naruto did._ Earth jutsu are probably one of the better elements to use for dealing with bugs, apart from fire. After all, I'd like to see those bugs get to him while he's all covered in mud.

A minute passes rather uneventfully, and I have to wonder exactly what Hiro is planning down there. Shino seems to be wondering that as well, because he directs some of the bugs to go into the holes in the ground, likely in search of Hiro.

The bugs seem to be the trigger, and the entire stadium starts shaking. Then, a booming voice rings out. "Earth Style: Mudslide!"

Hiro must be exerting a massive amount of control over the jutsu, because instead of causing a full out mudslide that takes the entire arena down, only the middle of the arena liquifies and turns into a sticky goop. Whatever insects were once underground have likely been crushed or drowned, save for the few that fly frantically out of the holes like the devil is at their heels.

Though I suppose it's not that inaccurate, because out of the center of the muddy landscape, emerges Hiro, covered head to toe in brown goop. The mud writhes, alarming Shino, who moves back several meters to get out of Hiro's range.

"That's not going to work..." Akito smirks down at Shino. "If he thinks that he's out of Hiro's range, he's dead wrong."

I wonder exactly what he means by that. "Well, maybe not dead, but what do you mean by wrong?"

Akito smiles at me. "Well...I may have been able to spy on Hiro during some of his training. And it looks like he took some inspiration from you."

"From me?" That doesn't make any sense. "But I can't use Earth Style." _Yet._

Akito chuckles. "Just watch, he's about to do it." He points down at our teammate.

I follow his line of sight and watch as a muddy river races towards Shino, splashing everywhere. "Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"

I have never seen anything like what Hiro displays now. Out of the river of mud emerges the head of a dragon, spitting bullets made of mud right at Shino. The bug-user runs for the hills, dodging every earthen projectile that flies his way, and trying to outrun the river of mud at the same time. He probably wishes that he could take flight like those bugs of his right now, because the mudslide is catching up to him, and it doesn't look like it's going to be slowing down any time soon.

Then, Hiro stops with the mud dragon, and his hands come together once more. "Earth Style: Earth and Stone Dragon!" _Dragons...? Is this what Akito meant? Is Hiro trying to make a pun on my name with his ninjutsu?_

The mud rises up, hardening as it touches the air. And from the pile of mud, comes a large earthen dragon, looking more like it's made of dirt than stone. It flies through the air, chasing after Shino, who tries to retreat into the trees. The dragon crashes down onto the grove, obliterating it completely.

I sigh slightly. _One, I hope that he hasn't killed Shino. And two, did he really have to go and change the whole landscape?_ Thankfully, that dragon of his clearned away most of the mud and lumped it together in the heap that used to be the grove. But still, this place does not look nearly as nice as it did when the finals first started.

Shino, though, seems to have pulled a fast one, probably by replacing his real body with one made of bugs. And he comes up behind Hiro with a kunai in hand, probably planning to finish this match right now.

But you never, ever get into a physical confrontation with Hiro, unless you're damn sure that you can overpower him. And Shino finds that out the hard way when Hiro's fists harden, and he whirls around to drive a punch into Shino's gut, tossing him about thirty feet.

True to my earlier assumption, Shino is not very good at taijutsu, and that was far from a soft hit. He tries to get back on his feet, but it looks like he's in too much pain to do so. So, the proctor calls it. "Winner, Hiro Kazaki!"

After taking a minute to catch his breath, since I'm sure that Hiro just burned through a ton of his chakra, he raises his fists into the air, celebrating much like Naruto did, though with less inhuman enthusiasm. Though his celebrating doesn't last long, because he walks over to Shino and crouches down next to him. And from the looks of it, judging by what his hands are doing, he's copying what I do when I check a person's vitals. _Is he making sure that Shino is okay?_ If that's what he's doing, then I can definitely say that I'm proud to be his teammate.

The medics soon come to handle Shino's care, though I'm sure that Hiro didn't punch him hard enough to actually break anything. He probably just winded him and knocked him out. I would be quite surprised if Hiro actually landed a rib-breaking hit on one of our classmates. He's way too nice to do something like that.

But with Hiro's victory, this brings and end to the first round of matches. Well, all except for one. Because Sasuke still isn't here. And I'm about five minutes from losing my cool and going out there to drag him back here myself. Because there's just no way that Sasuke can miss his match.

 _Dammit Kakashi! Where the hell are you two!? This is no time to be indulging your habit of perpetual lateness!_

The crowd is getting antsy, and time is ticking down for Sasuke to show up. That same ninja from earlier goes back down to the proctor, likely with another update. Then, the proctor nods and it looks like they're going to give Sasuke a little extra time to show up.

The minutes tick by, and there's still no sign of Sasuke. _Dammit...where are-_

Then, a whirlwind appears in the middle of the arena, and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Sasuke...you idiot..."

Just in the nick of time.


	47. Demonic Distraction

**So, my midterm went pretty well. There was only one question on there that was kind of hard to answer, though mostly because I couldn't remember a whole lot about some early Byzantine history. The rest of the questions, though, I think I did well on. So I'm expecting to get a pretty good grade on that exam. Best part was finishing it in less than an hour. In fact, I'd finished about forty minutes in, so that was nice.**

 **Let's wrap this up, shall we? It's time to go out with a bang. Or, a chidori, in this case. And...a bloodthirsty demon with a psychopathic host (you know, for now, before he becomes a cute little bundle of snuggles).**

* * *

The whirlwind in the center of the arena intensifies, before calming, and revealing two figures in its heart. I raise an eyebrow at the sight of the shorter figure. _Looks like someone decided to get a change of clothes? What, did he wear out his old ones?_ He's also wearing more bandages than he used to. I'm not sure whether or not that should be a cause for worry yet. Though, from the looks of it, he's not in pain, so I'll disregard the bandages for now.

But, from the looks of the proctor down there, and Naruto, who's gone and hurried out onto the field, everything is going to be alright. I smile down at the raven-haired idiot who seems to be picking up Kakashi's bad habit of being late. _Good luck Sasuke..._ I glance at Gaara as the red-head disappears. _You're going to need it._

Akito grins down at the field. "Looks like he finally showed up." He pretends like he wasn't eager to see this match, but I know that's a lie. Now that all of the other matches have gone through, it would be a shame to end the first round on a sour note.

"Yeah." I smile brightly, until Sasuke finally catches my gaze, onyx eyes glittering eagerly. "And it looks like we're in for a good match. He's motivated."

Naruto disappears from the field, probably after harassing Sasuke about winning his match and making it to the next round. If I know Naruto, then he'll be wanting to give Sasuke a little extra motivation. I laugh quietly. _Oh...the next round is going to be so much fun...I can't wait to see those two go head to head._ They've been at each other's throats, somewhat playfully, for ages. So they'll definitely put on a good show. Especially for those people who came here today specifically to see Sasuke fight.

But I find myself distracted, as the fain sound of screaming reaches my ears. _What the-_ I stand up straight and look around in alarm. _What the hell was that!?_ I shake a little as I continue to hear the screaming. There's something seriously wrong here. And then, the screaming suddenly stops.

Akito shakes my shoulder lightly, his brow furrowed slightly."Hey, what's going on? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I swallow nervously and look back in the direction that Gaara disappeared in. "I'll...be right back. There's something that I need to check." _Please...please don't let that be what I think it is..._

Hiro's face immediately shows serious concern. "Are you sure? We can come with you." He and Akito can act like such mother hens sometimes. I'm a ninja, just like them. And that means that I can handle a little covert investigation on my own.

"Yeah, I'm sure." The last thing I want to do is put my two teammates in the line of fire. Besides, there's always the chance that I imagined it. Even if that's a bad excuse at best. Thanks to my contact with Suzaku over the past few months, I have to say that my hearing has gotten a fair bit better. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But something like screaming is going to be rather hard to ignore.

I move away from the railing and head towards the tunnel that leads to the stairs. With every step I take, my apprehension grows. And so does the scent of blood. I step into the darkness, my eyes picking out every detail that I can. And then I see it, blood spattered all over the walls, and the crushed remains of two bloody corpses lying in the hallway.

Covering my mouth and nose with my hands, and trying not to breathe in the scent of blood, I examine the scene. But there's no need to examine the scene to know who did it. Based on how the bodies are crushed, as well as the temperament and abilities of the ninja who just walked through this hallway, there's no doubt about the one responsible for this mess. And he didn't even bother to clean up after himself.

 _Gaara._

After coming to my senses, I race back towards the viewing gallery, all of my senses in overdrive, and my heart pounding in ever so slight terror. I'm not afraid of Gaara, I refuse to be afraid of him. But that doesn't mean that I'm not afraid of what he might do to Sasuke. Especially since if things go south, Sasuke might be too stubborn to give up the fight. And there's no way that Gaara will let him get away alive. Not if his fixations are anything to judge by. He's already tried to kill Lee, and I'm sure that if he thought that he could get away with it, I would probably be a pile of blood and bones by now. But this match is going to give him exactly the chance he needs to kill Sasuke.

I skid to a stop just before reaching the railing, and Akito looks at me apprehensively. "What did you find?" The look on my face must be one of pure panic, otherwise he wouldn't be asking me like that.

Gaara's two teammates are still close by, so I lower my voice to barely a whisper. "Gaara's newest victims. There are two corpses in the hallway, crushed beyond basic recognition."

His and Hiro's eyes widen, then his own eyes narrow. "So that's why you ran off like that. You must have picked up on the screams, right?"

I nod silently, and Hiro sighs. "Great..." He looks down at the field. "So that means that Sasuke is fighting someone who's just drawn blood, and is probably looking to draw some more."

"Exactly..." And judging by the way that Gaara is shaking down there, I'd say that he's deriving far too much pleasure from thoughts of annihilating Sasuke. _Oh no...Sasuke is down there fighting a bloodthirsty psychopath who's already had his first kills of the day!_

Judging by their movements, it looks like the match is just about to start. They approach each other in front of the proctor, sharing glares. These two mean business, and it's not going to be pretty. The proctor raises his hand before stepping back. "Begin!"

At once, sand starts leaking out of Gaara's gourd, rising by itself into the air. But then, it starts to tremble, as much as something as fluid as sand can tremble, and Gaara clutches his head. There's a rather psychotic look in his eye, and the sand starts to pour out faster and faster.

And then, there's the bloodlust. And it looks like I'm not the only one worried. Kankuro is shaking in his shoes. "The conversation has started already. This is dangerous." _Conversation?_

"I know." Temari seems to be just as scared. "This is the first time I've seen Gaara get like that before fighting. That's how powerful an opponent Sasuke is."

 _What...?_ I clutch at the railing and try not to show that I've been listening to the two of them. _Is he really so fixated on Sasuke that it's making him homicidal?_ Then, it occurs to me that he was downright homicidal when we confronted him at the hospital. And there, he seemed just as fixated on me, as on killing Lee.

Then, all of the sand falls to the ground in heaps around Gaara, as though he lacks the will to keep it stable, or perhaps has the will to force his apparent madness down. But just as I try to figure out what the hell is going on, a warm, familiar presence makes an appearance. _Be careful, Shukaku is pushing his way to the surface. The exposure to blood earlier has made him vicious and unpredictable. And he will remain unstable as long as his jinchuuriki is unable to stay calm._

 _Is that why you're stable?_ I might as well ask, since it would be better to know sooner, rather than later, if Suzaku will go nuts as a result of me having a mental breakdown. Not that it'll matter much to me at that point.

 _No._ His presence swirls around me comfortingly. _I am...as you humans say, well adjusted, as opposed to Shukaku. If anything, I will help to keep your sanity intact. I am here by my own will, for your sake, not trapped in an unwilling host, such as Shukaku._

 _Good to know..._ It's rather reassuring to know that I'm not going to end up like Gaara. At least, I sure hope that I don't end up like Gaara.

But my eyes are drawn back to the field as Sasuke's shuriken flash through the air towards Gaara. _You're not going to be able to catch him like that..._ And as expected, they're caught by the sand. What's unexpected is that the sand takes on Gaara's form. And as Sasuke races forward to follow up with the attack, the sand clone erupts in a wave that nearly flattens Sasuke before he jumps high into the air to avoid it.

With Sasuke in the air, the sand clone hurls the shuriken back at him, forcing Sasuke to use up two more of his shuriken in order to deflect them. Then, he hits the ground and goes for the sand clone, only to be caught by the shifting substance when his left hand sinks into its neck. He strikes it with his palm, freeing himself when the sand clone crumbles. And then, he steps within Gaara's guard, aiming a punch straight at his face.

But as the sand rises up to shield Gaara, Sasuke disappears. My eyes widen at the sight. _That...was as fast as Lee._ I mean, considering that he's not using any elemental advantages, that's pretty damn fast for a ninja. And the punch he hits Gaara in the face with is enough to crack that sand armor. And now it makes sense. _Of course...that's why Kakashi wanted me to help Sasuke with his speed. My normal speed is the perfect stepping stone for building up to Lee's speed._ Well, that's minus me using a wind jutsu to speed myself up more. But, of course, there aren't many ninja who can do that, so I don't count that kind of speed as normal.

But with Gaara on the ground, Sasuke stands there confidently, poised to receive and counter an attack. But when Gaara doesn't move, it's Sasuke who jumps into action, moving nearly too fast for me to see. He's certainly fast enough to outrun all of the swirls of sand with agile movements that clearly stem from some of our games of tag, and powerful enough to deliver a single kick to Gaara's chest that sends him flying.

With Sasuke's progress thus far, my heart slows down, calming to an acceptable rate as my instincts realize that Sasuke is not in immediate danger. And with that, a smirk crawls onto my face. "Well, it looks like all of our little games of tag this past month have paid off."

"Tag?" Hiro looks at me questioningly. Though he wouldn't have to look at me like that if he and Akito hadn't insisted that we all train separately.

I nod with a smile. "Since you two were essentially MIA, I spent my month alternating between training with Sasuke, and training with Naruto. On the days that I spent with Sasuke, Kakashi thought it was a good idea to have the two of us run around. Both to increase my endurance, as well as to increase Sasuke's speed and agility." And it sure looks like it's paid off for Sasuke as well.

He changes strategies, and goes about running circles around Gaara, something I distinctly remember Lee doing. And it lets him get right past the sand, kick Gaara in the face, and then grab hold of the redhead before driving a knee into his stomach.

But, despite the advantage that the speed is giving him, it looks like Sasuke is starting to run out of gas. Unlike me, he's not using wind chakra to keep up that kind of speed. That's how I've always taken the pressure off of my stamina, and transferred it to my chakra reserves instead. And I find that it's a much better strategy, because I have much larger chakra reserves than reserves of physical stamina. Sasuke, on the other hand, is using minimal chakra, and almost entirely physical effort. That's going to come back to bite him in the ass later.

Gaara brings his hands together, rather than going to attack Sasuke. And at his command, the sand rises up and wraps itself around him, protecting Gaara in a spherical shell of sand. As it closes, Sasuke races towards the shell of sand, trying to punch his way in before it closes completely.

My heart lurches in worry as spikes of sand form all around Sasuke, and blood drips from several cuts on his arm, legs, and face. He must have hit his hand pretty hard, because that sand doesn't even have a dent in it as he pulls back his attack. The sand retreats as well, reforming the smooth shell around Gaara. And now, I can see Sasuke's knuckles bleeding. _I sure hope that he didn't go and break his hand..._

Red colors the once onyx eyes, the sure sign that Sasuke is taking this match seriously. And every second that Gaara is in that shield of sand, I can feel his bloodlust increasing. Not to mention that there's a swirl of sand moving around above the dome. I squint slightly, trying to get a good glimpse of what the tiny thing is. And with a little help from a certain demon, my eyesight sharpens, and I can see it. An eye.

Rather than just waiting around for whatever it is that Gaara's planning on doing, Sasuke sinks down into a combative stance, then charges at the dome, hitting it with weapons and taijutsu strikes from all angles, trying to find a way in. And all the while, he's dodging sand spikes that erupt from the surface of the sand in an attempt to protect the one inside.

So, giving up on that plan of action, Sasuke jumps back, flipping head over heels towards the wall, before gaining the momentum he needs to slide right back up the side. And it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, though a little odd, to be watching someone else moving the way I do. And it makes me feel a lot less weird about how much I like to bounce around. Then, comes the silence, during which Sasuke summons up his chakra so that he can turn it into that technique that I only saw him do once. Lightning.

While he does that, Kankuro and Temari continue their whispering. "What's that lunatic think he's doing? How long's he gonna stay in that thing!?"

"I don't know, but he's not following the plan." Temari grits her teeth. "He's no good to us like that." She and Kankuro probably think they're being sneaky, but I can hear them from all the way across the viewing gallery. _What plan? what are they up to? Some kind of strategy for the finals...? No, it can't be. This doesn't sound like a little battle plan..._

But I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of lightning. Sasuke is surrounded by a bright blue burst of lightning, and with it in his hand, he races down the side of the arena. He carves a line right down the arena wall, as well as across the ground as he sprints towards Gaara's sand dome. And as he closes in, he dodges the sand spikes that threaten to impale him, before shoving his hand right through the shell of sand, piercing it like a balloon.

Akito seems rather impressed by what he sees. "Well, that's new. I didn't know that he could pull off a change to lightning." That reminds me once again that I need to get someone to teach me how to do that too. And considering that I've got one such person on my team, that might very well be a possibility rather soon. Or...I could just find a way to blackmail Kakashi.

Right now, though, there's more important things to think about than who I'm going to bug into teaching me how to wield lightning. "Yeah, it is new." I smirk a little at the thought. "Are you glad you lost to me now? Because if you hadn't, there's every chance that you would have had to go up against either Naruto or Sasuke."

Akito laughs abashedly. "Yeah...you got me there. I swear, this whole final exam is turning into something that scares the shit out of me. Killing people with sand, jabs powered by lightning, an army of a hundred clones? I thought that genin were supposed to be weaker than this."

"Look who's talking..." I roll my eyes at him. "After all, not many genin can pull off having two elemental ninjutsu types."

He returns the eye roll. "What about two ninjutsu types, plus medical ninjutsu, the ability to see through genjutsu, and whatever other crazy skills you've been hiding from everyone?" I know that he's poking a bit of fun at me, but I suppose that he's got a point. This year's exams are just full of freaks. Myself, included, of course.

Sasuke still has his arm stuck inside of that dome, and that's starting to worry me a little. It worries me even more when Gaara starts wailing about blood, his shrieks echoing across the entire arena. Sasuke starts trying to pull his arm out, but seems to be having more than a little difficulty in doing so. As such, he resorts to radiating lightning in order to break the sand's hold on him.

Only, when he manages to pull himself free, what looks like the arm of a demon follows him out of the hole he made with his attack. It chases him for several meters, before retreating and pulling back within the dome of sand. Apparently, this is Gaara's reaction to someone drawing his blood.

Hiro backs away from the railing. "What the hell was that!?"

"That..." I swallow nervously. "Is something that you don't want to see." _Was...that Shukaku?_

 _...Yes._

I'm not sure what freaks me out more, the simplicity of the answer I've received, or its connotations. But from the look on Sasuke's face, I'd have to say that the connotations are worse. And from the looks of it, he's literally staring it in the eye, so frightened, that even when the howl sends tremors across the arena, he doesn't move an inch. And right now, not moving an inch is probably the worst thing for him to be doing.

The bloodlust is now at an all time high, and it's starting to freak me out a little. _Dammit, if Gaara starts going berserk, he's going to try and kill everyone here!_ I remember what he said in the hospital, and if killing is his reason for living, then he has thousands of spectators here, along with the entire village, unless someone stops him. Which means that lightning lessons are going to have to wait.

Then, the dome cracks and falls apart, revealing Gaara standing there. And there's blood dripping from his shoulder, proving that Sasuke really did injure him. He's drawn the blood of someone who revels in bloodlust. _That can't possibly be good._

Akito and Hiro look at each other, then seem to agree on something. Akito touches my shoulder briefly. "We're going to go and find Yuki-Sensei. There's something going on, and we need to find out what."

I nod slowly, barely registering his words. "Be careful."

The two of them smile, before disappearing down the hallway. Meanwhile, I'm getting the sense that there's something wrong, so I look carefully around to make sure that the two Sand ninja don't notice me sneaking off. _I'd better go and find Gramps. I'm sure that he knows about me and Naruto, but would he really have allowed a foreign Jinchuuriki to participate in the exams?_

Somehow, I get the feeling that the answer to my question is no. At least, not one that clearly has all of their screws loose. A sane one is a completely different story, hence why me and Naruto are here. That said, I race off down the hallway, ignoring the two bloody corpses, as well as the rotting smell that is starting to take root there. I take a left, then a right, then another left, and I come out in the stands. _Now...how the hell do I find Gr-_

That's when I notice the feathers. _Feathers!?_

Then, there's the explosion. _Great...so much for the next round..._


	48. The Genin Take Charge

**Now, this chapter is going to be a little weird at first, but keep in mind that Akito and Hiro got held back a year so that they could be put on Ciara's team. That means that they've got a year on their peers (though, in all honesty, the two of them could have graduated a couple of years early, but they didn't want to make the effort). Not to mention that Akito already helps out in the interrogation department, and I'm planning on eventually sending Hiro back to the academy as a teaching assistant (until he's old enough to actually teach the brats). So in an emergency, this kind of behavior is only to be expected.**

 **Also, I'll be adding Sakura's P.O.V., finally. Though, it's mostly for the sake of impact and visual description than anything else.**

 **Warning...very long chapter ahead.**

* * *

As the feathers continue to fall, something strikes me as odd. _What...wait...is this a genjutsu?_ I may not have seen a lot of genjutsu before, but if it is one, that would explain why nothing is happening to me. _But that said...what exactly is going on here? Why place a genjutsu over the entire crowd?_

I can feel the genjutsu continuing to fall all around me, but nothing in front of me changes. Not the sights, the smells, or the sounds. Well, except that it's going rather quiet. Too quiet for an arena full of excited spectators, who seem to have collectively fallen asleep. _Who is powerful enough to place such a widespread genjutsu?_ I've never seen anything like this before. Though, to be fair, I haven't come up against much genjutsu.

 _Chick, be on your guard. Whoever is casting this genjutsu wants no witnesses to their plan. Find your teammates, quickly._

Without even questioning how he knows what's going on, I race through the arena, seeking out Hiro and Akito's chakra signatures. Everything is very muddled by the sheer number of them, and without what seems to be my complete immunity to genjutsu, there's no way they'll still be awake by now. And inactive or slumbering chakra signatures are even harder to find in this mess.

I grit my teeth as I search for my missing teammates. _Plan...what plan?_ Then it occurs to me. _Is this what they were talking about? Temari and Kankuro...is this part of their plan!? But...if that's so, then who is out there helping them?_

As I pass through my third set of bleachers, I spot two rather familiar shapes leaning slumped against the railing. _Found them!_ I jump over several rows of seats, being careful not to hit any unconscious spectators in the head. The last thing I need is to have to explain why people who came here to watch our matches somehow have mysterious concussions.

I land next to the railing and gather chakra in my fingers. I press my fingers to Akito's temples and close my eyes, preparing to overstimulate his synapses. "Release." The chakra shoots into his body, jolting him from unconsciousness.

He groans and raises a hand to his eyes. "What's going on? The last thing I saw...Sasuke and that Gaara guy were tearing into each other."

"I'll explain in a minute." I move on to Hiro, gathering a little more chakra in my fingers as I press them to his head to repeat the process. "Release." And just like Akito, Hiro wakes up. Unlike, Akito, he does it much less gracefully, and he smacks the back of his head on the concrete floor.

"Ow..." He rolls onto his side and rubs the back of his head. "What the hell happened? We were just trying to find Yuki-Sensei, but..."

"Genjutsu." I look down into the arena, and neither Sasuke or Gaara are anywhere to be seen. "We've got an enemy in our midst, and they've cast a widespread genjutsu over the entire crowd." Which is about all I can really figure right now.

Akito nods slowly. "And you didn't fall asleep because of it, right? Genjutsu doesn't work right on you."

"Exactly." I look out over the crowd and notice movement. Many of the moving figures are in green flak jackets, but some aren't. "Clearly, we're under attack. But I have no idea by whom, or how many there are."

"So that's what's going on..." Hiro rubs his head a little more, before he looks around, eyes sharpening as his demeanor becomes serious. "If we're under attack, then we can't just sit here and do nothing. Exams be damned, if the village is under attack."

"Agreed." Akito rises to his feet and pulls Hiro up with him. "We need to assess the situation quickly, then move out, even if that means splitting up."

"And...that means that we'll probably end up splitting up anyway." I grip the railing and try to get a feel for how many there are out there. But something feels wrong, because there are chakra spikes far past the arena. "Uh...I think we have a problem."

Akito sighs. "Let me guess...chakra signatures out past the arena. There's a lot of them, and it seems like they're coming from all directions?" I nod tersely. "Great..."

"Well, then I guess that means that the situation is clear." Hiro grits his teeth. "The village is under a large-scale attack. And that means that we need every ninja we've got to fight, gather intelligence, or conduct evacuations of the civilians."

"It sounds like the three of you already know what you need to do." An ANBU touches down on the railing right next to us. And very much against protocol, he removes his mask, revealing a face that I haven't seen since I was little. "Hello, Ciara."

"Uncle..." It's my aunt Shiho's husband, Konohamaru's father, and a member of the Sarutobi Clan. "Do you know what's going on?"

He nods. "The village is under attack by the Sand and Sound, though we haven't yet received word of any other allies they might have. There is a giant three-headed snake running rampant throughout the village, and Lord Hokage is currently trapped in a barrier and engaged in battle with Orochimaru, a former student of his." He's reporting it as befits an ANBU captain, though he certainly has no obligation to tell me anything. "Also, you should know that your friend, Naruto Uzumaki, is currently with a squad that is pursuing Sasuke Uchiha, who in turn, is in pursuit of the Sand ninja, Gaara of the Desert."

"Thank you." Now, I know what's going on. Which means that now, we can make a plan. I turn to my teammates, who stare back at me, just as determined to do this. "I think that since you both saw what happened earlier, I should give you at least a short explanation, with the promise of a longer one later. Though I tell you this is confidence that you will not reveal it to others." I close my eyes and take a deep breath, opening them once more when they turn red, orange, and gold. "You've seen this power once before, and trusted me to use it to protect you. But Gaara and Naruto both have power similar to mine. It's dangerous and volatile, and I fear for anyone who fights against it without any knowledge of it. Which means that if Sasuke, and whoever Naruto brought with him are going to survive, I need to go in pursuit of them, myself."

Akito smiles confidently. "Alright, then we'll leave their reinforcements to you. Meanwhile, I'll find some high ground and scope out the situation, then, I'll report in to the intelligence department and see what I can do to help Ibiki."

"Alright, then while the two of you do that, I'll head to the academy and make sure that all the students have gotten out, before then heading out into the village to help evacuate the civilians." Hiro punches his fist into his palm. "We'll attack this problem on three fronts, and see where we go from there. If things start to go south, we'll meet back in the village center in three hours."

I smile at their eagerness to get to work, and I hold my fist in the air. "Then let's do this."

"Yeah!" Akito and Hiro bump their fists against mine, and the two of them race to the railing, before hopping over it and dropping to the ground, turning into nothing but blurs as they escape the arena.

My uncle, having stayed to watch our meeting, puts his mask back in place, though I can almost seen the smile behind it. "I see that I will have several things to report to your proctors later. The exams may have been interrupted, but I think there is something to be said for three genin being able to keep their cool and come up with such a well thought out plan so quickly. Now..." He points off towards the border of the village. "Your targets have headed out in that direction. If you hurry, you might be able to catch up with them before anything unfortunate happens. I must return to Lord Hokage." With that warning, he disappears, likely to go and command a couple of ANBU teams.

With a simple nod between the three of us, we split up and race off in three different directions. And I don't even glance back as I race up the wall, trusting them to do what they have to. I make it to the top and survey the area, looking out at the buildings that I'll have to use as stepping stones in order to follow behind Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara.

 _Well, no time like the present._ I leap from the top of the wall, falling about thirty feet, and hit the roof of the adjacent building running. I barely pay attention to the people in the streets, pointing up at me with confusion. I'm on a mission, and I have to make sure that I carry it out. The lives of people that I care about are hanging in the balance, and that's not something that's going to fly.

The wind catches at my long blue sleeves and whispers over my bare shoulders and upper back as I nearly fly through the air. I jump so far with every stride that I only ever place one foot on any given roof. But even from here, heading in the opposite direction of the battle, I can see the gigantic snake wreaking havoc over on the other side of the village.

I turn my head, forcing myself to ignore the destruction. My job right now is not to fly to their rescue, but to fly to the rescue of those that I'm pretty sure are in way over their heads. _Damn it, Naruto...why couldn't you just wait for me?_

There's no use grumbling about it now, though. I just have to go a little bit faster and get within range of Naruto's chakra. No doubt, he's got something helping him to home in on Sasuke, so all I have to do is follow along, and make sure to arrive in time to stop anyone from getting themselves killed.

Thankfully, it doesn't take me too long to get out of the urban areas of the village and into the trees. I have a lot more maneuverability here, and it's far easier to fight in here without getting any of the civilians involved. My foot hits a tree branch, and I leap off of it, nearly shattering the limb with the amount of chakra that I'm pumping into my feet to keep up this pace.

For a couple of minutes, it feels like I'm getting closer to Naruto, until his signature takes off in another direction. But as I start to get closer, another signature approaches me from behind.

Ready for an attack, I hit a tree branch hard and turn around, mustering chakra in my hands to unleash on my pursuer, before a figure lands on another branch and holds up their hands in surrender. "Hold on, it's just me!"

I recognize that voice. "You're..." I get a good look at his face and relax a little. "Asuma Sarutobi..." He's my uncle's younger brother.

He smirks at me lightly. "Good to see you, kid."

"Yeah..." I look behind me, where Naruto's chakra signature is getting away from me. "I'd love to stay and get to know you, Uncle, but I'm kind of in the middle of chasing down Naruto so that no one gets themselves killed."

"Yeah, I know." _Of course he would know..._ He grins easily. "I'm here for Shikamaru. Seems like he and Naruto have split up."

My eyes widen in alarm. "They've split up!?" _Ugh, who the hell is making the plans!? Oh wait..._ "Okay, you take care of Shikamaru. He's probably the one getting himself into trouble."

Asuma nods. "Yeah, probably. Now, you go and find your friends."

"Yeah." I turn away and glance back over my shoulder. "Make sure that Shikamaru makes it out of this alive. It would put a real damper on our classmates spirits if one of us were to kick the bucket." I point off in a slightly different direction. "I'm headed that way."

"Alright, stay safe out there." It seems like even if he barely knows me, just by my late aunt's association with him, he worries a little.

I laugh quietly. "Yeah, I'll be alright. I'll come back with Naruto and the others." _Hopefully in one piece..._

I leap from branch to branch, gaining distance from Asuma, and closing the distance between me and my targets. While it makes me feel better to be catching up to Naruto and Sasuke, the fact that I can hear explosions from up ahead does not reassure me. _Please...please don't let me be too late._

 _Chick, if you wish to move quickly enough to catch up to your friends...you may use my wings._

I nearly freeze at his suggestion, and I have to stop at the end of my jump in order to take a breath. _Use...your wings? But...then they'll-_

 _Yes, they will see. But I fear that if you continue at this pace, even by riding the wind, you may not make it in time. They have a lead of several minutes on you already. If you wish to save them..._

 _Then I'll need to trust them..._ I sigh slightly, and I mull over the decision. On the one hand, if I accept Suzaku's help in this instance, I will certainly catch up to them in time to save them. On the other hand, if I do that, then not only Naruto, but Sasuke, and the Sand ninja will all see me like that, along with anyone else accompanying Naruto.

I don't like the idea of showing that to anyone, but realistically speaking, I don't know how long I could expect to be able to keep my abilities secret. _Well, it's not like I need to keep it a secret for the Chunin Exams..._ Chances are, they're not going to be resuming after this. so that leaves the downside being that anyone who sees me is going to hate me. Well, anyone but Naruto. I doubt that he could hate me, even if I turned myself into a giant bird.

 _Okay...but if we're doing this, then we might as well go all out._

 _What did you have in mind, chick?_

 _Well, Gaara is Shukaku's vessel, right? I doubt that he's going to be down for long. And when he gets back up, he's going to go after Sasuke and Naruto. So in that case, I'm going to need a lot more than just a pair of wings when it comes down to stopping him. Especially if it comes down to a physical confrontation._

Suzaku is silent for a moment, before power starts welling up inside of me. _I will give you what your body can handle. But be careful, your body is still immature and fragile. You will not be able to use this form for long. Your strength will far beyond what you could ever have imagined. But you will likely collapse when all is said and done. Be prepared for that outcome._

 _I know. No power comes without a price._ I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and let the power flow through my chakra pathways. Heat gathers in my back, as well as in my eyes, licking across my cheeks and forehead, and gathering just in front of my ears. _Please...help me!_

The heat solidifies, and wings burst from my back. I open my eyes to find that my eyesight has sharpened, just like earlier. "It's time to go."

My feet break the thick branch as I kick off of it. But I don't land on the next branch, no, I take to the air, flapping my new wings around me as I pick up speed, dodging through the trees at twice the speed I had while jumping. The feeling of the wind across my skin is incredible, and it makes me feel completely free.

* * *

Sakura's P.O.V.

Naruto goes right ahead and kicks the monster lunging at Sasuke, and I land on the tree branch next to him. Sasuke looks terrible, and the curse mark is starting to show up on his skin again. "S-Sasuke!" I touch him gingerly, trying not to aggravate the pain he's clearly in.

Sasuke tries to get up, turning his head towards Naruto. "W-what are you doing here?"

But the angle he's at gives me a perfect view of how far the curse mark has gotten. _He's losing control again, just like before._ His cries remind me of the Forest of Death, and that's not a good thing. "Sasuke, hold on!" I curse silently. _Kakashi-Sensei said that bruise was nothing to worry about._

"Hey, uh Sakura. Earth to Sakura!" Naruto's voice needles its way into my brain.

"What do you want!?" _Where are his priorities!? Sasuke is hurt!_

Naruto points on ahead at the monster in front of us. "Uh, this guy over here...who the heck is he?"

"His outward appearance might be different..." Pakkun hops onto the branch and peers at the monster. "But he's the one you know as Gaara."

My fists clench tightly as I notice the resemblance. _He did this...to Sasuke._

"Hey, little girl." Pakkun wags his butt in front of me. "I guess now would be the time to tell you that I'm not the fighting type."

He says that like I hadn't figured it out by the fact that he's only a foot along! "I can see that by looking at you!" But then, Sasuke starts to cry out in pain again, and calls my attention to him. _In any case, we have to get out of here and get Sasuke back to Kakashi-Sensei._

"What do you want?" Gaara growls like some kind of animal, a feral grin on his face.

But Sasuke tries to get back up, despite the fact that he clearly needs help. And I try to keep him down. "Sasuke..." I watch as he clutches at his shoulder, helpless to do anything to help him.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, something moves, and Naruto shouts. "Guys, get up! We have to move, now!"

"Die, Sasuke Uchiha!" But as Gaara comes flying at us, I move to defend him. Though I suppose that it's rather stupid to be fighting a monster with just one kunai.

"I don't think so!" A huge red and blue blur flies past us, meeting Gaara in the air, and hurling him backwards so hard that he smashes right through half a dozen trees.

Between him on the ground, and us up in the tree, stands a small figure with huge reddish wings coming out of their back, stretching out nearly twenty feet in both directions, colored like a beautiful sunset. A handful of red feathers sweep back from near the front of brown hair that trails down to just past their shoulderblades. And when this newcomer turns around, I see fiery red markings shaped like small flames on her forehead and cheeks, licking back towards her crown and temples, half hidden by sideswept brown bangs, and framing eyes that transition from gold, to orange, to scarlet in spikes around her pupils.

 _...Ciara...?_

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

I breathe a little heavily, but it looks like I made it just in time. Well, not just in time, since it looks like Sasuke has largely been put out of commission. But I'm definitely in time to make sure that no one has died. I take in a deep breath, then sweep my eyes over the three of them, plus the dog. "I take it that you four are alright?"

Sakura nods weakly, not even bothering to disguise the way that she's staring at me. It's actually kind of amusing. I'm not used to stunning people into silence. But feeling amusement at that is going to have to wait for later, because right now, we've got a bigger problem.

Gaara took the hit well, and he's climbing back up into the trees already. And judging by the way he's growling, my sudden appearance has managed to royally piss him off. Naruto growls back at him, though I doubt that he even realizes that he's doing it. "Ciara, Sasuke's hurt. Get him and Sakura out of here and-"

A mass of sand shoots past us, taking on the form of a giant demonic arm, and slams right into Sakura. pinning her to a nearby tree. I grit my teeth and turn my eyes on Gaara. I wasn't expecting him to recover so quickly, and I let my guard down for just an instant, and that's all it took for him to launch a sneak attack. Then, he withdraws most of the arm, leaving a layer of it there to keep Sakura immobilized against the tree. And from the looks of it, the impact has knocked her unconscious as well.

"Damn it." I crack my knuckles, flexing them menacingly. Gaara seems to be having another of those mental breakdowns right in front of me, once again holding his head in pain. _Okay, what do I do now? Do I go to help Sakura, stay here to protect Sasuke, or make a move against Gaara?_ I have to weigh the odds and take into account what we've got. Sakura is unconscious, Sasuke is in no shape to battle, and there's me and Naruto here to fight Gaara.

 _Okay..._ I take a deep breath and consider the situation. _If Naruto can summon up the power, then I'm sure that he can take on Gaara. But if I have to do it, then that leaves no one here to heal Sasuke and Sakura. If I stay here to tend to them, then that means that Naruto will be out there fighting Gaara on his own. But, if both of us go to fight Gaara, then that leaves Sakura and Sasuke without protection. That's not an option. We also can't run away. There's no way I would be able to carry all of them fast enough to outrun Gaara. So...how badly do we want a victory...?_

Gaara growls at us from the opposite tree branch. "What's the matter? Weren't you going to make a run for it?"

Sakura groans quietly against the tree. "Sasuke...Naruto..." She's calling out for her teammates.

"Who are these two...?" Gaara starts to growl again, glaring with half of his face transformed at Naruto. "Who are they to you!?"

"Huh? Who are they to me!?" Judging by the way that Naruto gets to his feet, and the look on his face, he's growing himself a backbone, despite his fear. "They're my friends is who they are! You try laying so much as another finger on the two of them, and I will pulverize you!"

The sand that Gaara laid around Sakura starts to constrict, and she cries out in pain. "Well, I would consider that to be a bit more than a finger..." My own voice is something of a growl, though much more melodic than the feral sounds coming out of Gaara's mouth.

"What's the matter!?" Gaara stares at Naruto challengingly. "Weren't you going to pulverize me? Well, come on then."

It would seem that my decision has been made for me. "I've got these two, go on!" I give Naruto a push to the back, and he takes it.

"You're on!" Using the extra momentum I've given him, he leaps towards Gaara.

"Now..." I turn away from Naruto, putting my faith in his abilities for now, because Sasuke needs me more. "Jeez...you've really messed yourself up..." I can see dark marks all over his body, and I can sense that same malevolent power from during his match in the preliminaries. _So...this is what that power was..._ Before I can even start tending to Sasuke, Naruto gets thrown back by Gaara's demonic sand arm. I sigh irritably. "You know, that's not what I had in mind for handling Gaara..."

"Oh...shut up." Naruto struggles to get back up. "This guy..." He shakes his head. "Just focus on healing Sasuke and getting Sakura out of that sand."

Gaara starts laughing at our exchange. "And that's exactly why you can't win. As long as you fight for the sake of others, you'll never advance beyond this level. Only one can remain undefeated. And only he can feel what it's like to truly exist! Forget your friends and fight for yourself!"

Naruto clenches his fists tightly. "You're insane. Forget my friends?"

"Let trivial feelings like friendship and loyalty cloud your focus and you'll die." Gaara's feral nature is peeking out even more now. And so are his psychopathic tendencies.

Naruto is undeterred. "Yeah, yeah, keep talkin' while you can. Cause I'm about to shut you up once and for all! I'm takin' you down!" Naruto flies through the air, a kunai in hand, but Gaara just swats him out of the air with his tail.

That said, I take a deep breath and focus chakra into my hands. And this time, as I press my hands to Sasuke's back, my chakra glows a reddish orange, with bright little sparks leaping through it. _Come on..._ I pass my hands over his many bumps, bruises, and bleeding cuts. A few of them, like the ones from his match, are already scabbed over. But the fresher once are still bleeding, and that can't be allowed to continue.

"Sakura!" I turn my head at the sound of Naruto's voice to see that the life is being squeezed out of her by the constricting sand. "Let her go!" But when Gaara doesn't move, Naruto does. "Summoning Jutsu!"

But instead of Gamabunta, the Chief Toad, that I'm sure that Naruto was aiming for, all I see on the branch in front of him is a small orange toad with a navy blue jacket. I resist the urge to slap my palm to my face, since that would disrupt my ability to heal Sasuke. And I certainly don't feel like listening to Naruto argue with the tiny toad.

Gaara, on the other hand, demands my attention, as he starts transforming further. "Only by attacking and defeating me can you free her." And he's offered Naruto an ultimatum. _Why do people offer ultimatums like that. Half the time, it backfires on you!_ "But you should hurry. With each passing second, the sand will harden, until it crushes her to death." Then, he raises his arms and launches an attack into the air. "Sand Shuriken!"

As the projectiles come closer, I turn my back to him and fold my wings together, letting the feathers lock together to make a shield. Four of the projectiles smash against my wings, but they do about as much damage as if he'd thrown a few rocks at me. Not pleasant, but I'm hardly going to die. If my wings could bruise, they would.

Naruto, on the other hand, gets thrown back as he tries to keep the little toad protected in his arms. And as I look over at my best friend, I can see the look on his face. And it's clear that his emotions are sinking. _No...Naruto..._ Maybe I should have made him run. I should have stayed behind. I'm less sensitive about this demon topic than he is. Fighting Gaara can't be good for him, especially with all of his growling about hatred and power.

 _Or maybe..._

The expression on Naruto's face changes, his face hardening into hard lines of determination. And then, there's three dozen Naruto clones in the air. But it takes only a moment for Gaara to blow them away. Then, Gaara blows Naruto away.

In the split second that it take for Naruto to fly towards a huge tree trunk, my hands flash together, and I take in a deep breath, forgetting about Sasuke for a moment. "Wind Style: Air Cushion!" I blow all of the air out, catching Naruto just before he hits the tree. And it drops him onto the branch gently, preventing what would have probably been the knock-out punch.

But as I turn to look at Gaara, anger shoots through me. _Hey, Suzaku...can I make a shadow clone like this?_

 _...I would not advise it._

 _Why?_

He's silent for a moment. _Because if you do, the effects of my chakra on your body will double. You will not be able to hold it long, and the damage to your body will be devastating. In the future, perhaps, but not now._

 _Oh..._ If he'd said yes, then I could be helping Naruto right now, rather than tending to his teammate who seems to have thought that depleting his chakra and getting thrown around by a Jinchuuriki would be fun.

"What is this...you come at me and that's all you've got!?" Gaara advances on Naruto, his Jinchuuriki form now progressed to where his entire body above the knees is covered by sand that forms itself into the shape of a demon. "All that effort...and you couldn't even touch me. What a joke!"

Naruto pants a little, and I notice him rolling an explosive tag around a kunai. "I don't know how much damage I can do, but it doesn't matter. I just have to give it my best shot." He starts making clones, and they fly down at Gaara, yelling all sorts of nonsense as they multiply over and over again.

And I'm almost impressed...until he shoves the kunai straight into Gaara's butt, calling it something like a thousand years of death. I don't see how shoving something up a demon's ass qualifies as death, or could last a thousand years, but...I'm not the one who named the technique, so I'm not going to comment.

Though, seconds after Gaara swats Naruto away, the kunai explodes point blank, shoved almost up Gaara's behind. And Sasuke, the idiot, seems to have decided that I've healed him enough, because he gets up and sprints along the branch, leaping over towards the tree that Naruto is hurtling towards. He flings himself between Naruto and the tree, breaking Naruto's fall.

Though, the one good thing to be said about that whole mess is that Naruto's stunt worked somewhat. Most of Gaara's sand has fallen off. But, seeing as it looks like Sasuke is going to try and get back in this fight, I'm going to have to put my foot down.

"I...can hold him here a little longer." Sasuke winces a little as he gets to his feet. "If it ends here, then that just means that this was as far as I was meant to go." He breathes hard, and I can hear the pain laced in his voice. "I lost everything once. I don't ever want to have to see that again. My trusted comrades falling...right in front of me." It's a noble sentiment, but in his condition, there's no way that he can see it through.

I land on the branch they're on, only to see Naruto getting up as well. "I get it now. Of course...he's no different than I am...going through life with the exact same sadness and loneliness that I had to carry. He fought only for himself, never relying on anyone." Naruto clenches his fists once more. "And because of that, I thought that he possessed strength. I really did."

Resisting the urge to laugh, I shake my head. "Did you learn your lesson?"

"I don't know." Naruto sighs a bit. "I guess I should have known better. That's not what real strength is. If you never fight for anybody but yourself, you'll never be strong, no matter what you do." He looks back at me with a smile. "You said in the hospital...that your reason to exist was to protect others."

I nod slowly. "To protect others is one of my most basic and powerful instincts. And I know that it's why I was born." Even if I couldn't protect the people I loved most, I can do something to protect the people around me now. "And that's what I'll do right now!" I look over at Sakura with a fire in my soul. "Naruto, you handle Gaara. I'll pry the sand off of Sakura and get these two to a safe distance." I shoot him a meaningful look. "Don't hold back. Give him hell!"

"Yeah!" He slams his hands together, and focuses hard, bringing forth a massive amount of chakra.

I grab hold of Sasuke and pull him out of range as Naruto summons up a thousand clones. "I know that you want to argue, or squirm, or complain, but don't." I look down at him as I drop him gently on a large branch, a safe distance away from what's about to be a battlefield. "That's not something you want to be in the middle of right now."

"But...how did he...?" Sasuke looks like someone's shocked him with a lightning bolt.

I smile slightly at his reaction. "Maybe you don't know your teammate as well as you think you do." Then, I look at Naruto proudly. "But I know my best friend, and this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"...Ciara...?" I look down at him to see that he looks utterly astonished.

I raise a curious eyebrow. "What, did you only just figure that out?" Then, I glance back at my wings and shrug. "Well, I guess I can forgive it. I do look a bit different now, after all."

"But..." He looks me up and down, as though not understanding what he's seeing. "What...are you?"

He's asked the million dollar question. "Well..." I take a deep breath and look him in the eye. "I suppose you could say that I'm like Gaara...just not totally psychotic. Though, I'm not the only one like him..." I cast my eyes on Naruto, thought I hardly expect Sasuke to know what I'm talking about.

"That's not an answer." His gaze hardens as he watches me.

I shrug lightly. "I know. But it's the best I'm going to give you. Just..." I bite my lip a bit and hold in a slightly panicked breath. "Just trust me, at least until we're all safe again."

He seems to bit his tongue on the topic, but that doesn't stop him from talking. "Then...what about Naruto? How did he-"

"Effort." The answer is rather simple as the two of us watch Naruto pummel Gaara from a distance. "He worked hard, never gave up, and used that weird brain of his to come up with the most improvisational and unexpected strategies." Then, Gaara's energy starts pulsing, and the clones start to disappear. "Crap, we have to move!"

I grab hold of Sasuke once more, this time, relocating to the branch that Sakura has been imprisoned on. Sasuke looks up at the sand uncertainly. "How are we supposed to get through that? My Chidori..."

"It's fine." I crack my knuckles as I look off into the distance, spotting a gigantic version of Gaara's earlier form. _Naruto...you had better con that Fox into giving you some chakra, because we need that huge toad summon of yours right about now._ I turn back to Sakura and grab hold of the sand. "We leave the big stuff to Naruto, and down here..." I dig my fingers deep into the sand. "We tear this off!"

With the extra strength granted by Suzaku, I tear off the sand piece by piece, releasing the pressure on Sakura bit by bit. Even this sand is no match for a furious Jinchuuriki. And I'm definitely not falling into the calm category right about now.

Sasuke, on the other hand, seems a little dazed by the sight above us. "What...is that?"

I roll my eyes as I continue to tear away the sand. "That would be the monster you tried to fight. So no matter how much you want to end your battle with Gaara, just stay put and stay out of it." I look up and refuse to shake. "Leave it to Naruto. He still has a couple of tricks up his sleeve." _Namely a giant fox and a giant toad..._

And as though reading my mind, Naruto's voice cries out. "Summoning Jutsu!" And over near the giant sand demon, appears a giant red toad. Gamabunta.

"How did he...?" Sasuke, once again, seems to be at a loss for words.

So, I yank away the last of the sand and allow Sakura to fall into my arms. "That's what Naruto spent this last month working on. While you worked on Chidori, he worked on learning how to summon toads. He went through hell to learn it, though."

The ground soon starts shaking with the force of Gamabunta's jumps. It's a battle between titans, and it's not a good idea for us to stick around. So, I grab Sakura under one arm, and yank Sasuke onto my back. It's a bit awkward, since he's half a foot taller than me, but in this form, I'm a lot stronger than usual.

Sasuke squirms a little as I take off. "Hey! Put me down!"

"Are you insane!?" I look back at the raging battle. "What could you possibly do in this situation!?" And then, of course, it just has to rain on us. "Ugh...great..." I flap my wings hard in order to keep us airborne, but have to touch down again before long in order to shake the water from them.

Sasuke looks back, his arms now firmly clasped around my neck. "What kind of battle is this turning into?"

My frustration gets the better of me, and I nearly growl at him. "One between a demon and a giant toad! What else!?" The two sides are going at each other with the force of natural disasters. Then, Naruto pulls the stupidest move I've ever seen. He uses a transformation jutsu on Gamabunta to turn the two of them into the Fox.

Sasuke's eyes widen. "That's the-"

"Nine-Tailed Fox." I nod quickly. _Jeez...Naruto. I know that this is a battle between Jinchuuriki, but that doesn't mean that you have to follow Gaara's example and literally turn yourself into your inner demon!_ "Forget about it, it's just a transformation! We need to focus on not getting crushed!" I stop on a branch close to Kakashi's dog summon. "Hey, hop on!"

Without any protest, he hops onto my shoulder, clawing into my clothes and hanging on for dear life. "Are you sure that you know what you're-"

I take off from the branch, keeping pace with the battle, since I get the feeling that Naruto is going to need help in a couple of minutes, but I stay far enough away to keep my quarries safe. Though with a battle of this intensity, it's no surprise that we nearly get blown away a few times.

For the next couple of minutes, as shockwaves rock the area, I keep us under the cover of the trees. Then, the battle slows down. That is, until my chakra starts to pulse again, a reaction to the Fox's chakra within Naruto. And with a final shockwave ripping across the battlefield, I stop moving, and everything relaxes somewhat, growing steadily quieter.

Sasuke slides off of my back as we wait for the results. "Did...did he win?"

I reach out, looking for chakra coming from either of them. And luckily, all I really sense is Naruto, though not much of that. Gaara's feel is faint, but steady. Which means... "Yeah...Naruto won..." And best of all, he did it without killing anyone.

Gamabunta disappears, but despite my earlier assertion, it looks like those two just want to get in one last damn brawl. And it's a move that sends both of them falling to the ground. And from the looks of our perch, it would appear that neither of them are able to move.

With a sigh, I hand Sakura to Sasuke. "Stay here. I'll be back as soon as I'm done with those two morons..." While I'm relieved that the battle is over, I can't help feeling sad. Because it almost feels like this was inevitable.

I drop to the ground and walk slowly over to where Naruto is crawling towards Gaara. "Naruto..." I look at the wounds on him and shake my head. Then I see similar wounds on Gaara. _Don't tell me...that he actually had to headbutt some sense into him?_ But the look in Gaara's eyes is different now. There's fear, rather than rage. And maybe...just maybe...that might be a good thing. I sigh slightly. "Sit still..."

Naruto obediently stops moving, and allows me to turn him over so that I can tend to him. And since he's only inches from Gaara, I take some pity on him as well. But I wouldn't, if it weren't for the fact that I can no longer feel any bloodlust or malice from him at all. So, I pass a glowing hand over him, and look down at him with no anger or hatred or even disapproval in my gaze. No. I can feel his turbulent emotions, and it makes me sad, makes me sympathize. Because thanks to Naruto, I got a front row seat to that kind of pain as a kid, and recently, things have begun to change for me too. And not for the better.

He looks up into my eyes, his aqua gaze boring into me. "Why...why would you help me after I-"

"Shut up and stay still." I click my tongue at him irritably. "If you don't, you'll just reopen your wounds." I pay special attention to the wounds on his forehead and shoulder.

"But..."

I huff impatiently and lean over him so that I can look him right in the eye, with nothing to interfere. "Are you planning on attacking the village again? Knowing that you'll get your butt kicked again?" He blinks slowly, then shakes his head. I nod approvingly. "Good. In that case, there's no reason for me not to tend to your injuries.

But just as I say that, Temari and Kankuro come rushing over, glaring supiciously at me. "What are you doing to Gaara!?"

I raise my hand slightly. "Healing him. Duh."

They both blink bemusedly, and Temari recovers first. "But...we're your enemies."

"Perhaps..." I lower my voice a little as Sasuke jumps down with Sakura draped over him. "But...he is also kin..."

Naruto and Gaara look up at me with astonished expressions as my wings flutter gently. But our moment is broken by Sasuke's approach. "Naruto, it's over. Sakura's going to be alright." He motions to the unconscious girl on his back. "Ciara tore the sand away." He looks over at me and takes a deep breath. "It's time to go."

"Yeah..." I grab hold of Naruto in one arm, strength still flowing through me. And then, I watch as Temari and Kankuro collect Gaara. "You two...take care of him..." I look down to those blank blue eyes and let a gentle smile crawl across my face. "And...try to have a team outing when you get home. Hang out, or something like that." The two of them watch me blankly, like they have no idea what I just said. But instead of repeating myself, I just leave it there to sink in as they take Gaara away.. I nod to Sasuke, who hands me Sakura. "Alright, now get on."

Sasuke shoots me a sour look. "I can get back on my own."

"I'm sure you could." But I'm in no mood for arguing. "But in your condition, it'll take you until nightfall. So just get on, and I'll fly us back."

Sasuke looks like he wants to keep arguing, but I glare at him again, and he relents, climbing slowly onto my back, and securing his arms around my neck, before I take off into the sky. It's a pretty heavy load, carrying three people, but there's no way that I'm going to drop them, no matter what.

I flap my wings as fast as I can, and zoom above the treeline, rather than wasting time dodging through the forest. I make a beeline straight towards the arena, since that's a fairly central location, as well as where most of the sensei are likely to show up. And Gramps might still be there.

So, after about ten minutes of very painful flying, not that I ever expressed such a thing out loud, I start to lose altitude on the approach to the arena. Sasuke breathes heavily in my ear. "You should land before we fall out of the sky. You're exhausted."

"I know..." I take a deep breath and will the world to stop spinning. "But I can make it, just watch." I tilt us towards the roof, where several of the jounin are gathered.

Much less gracefully than I'd like, the four of us tumble onto the roof, though I do my best to take the brunt of the impact with my legs, keeping my balance, despite my screaming muscles. Sasuke quickly slides off my back, and takes Sakura from my grip. I place Naruto down gently on the tiled roof, before collapsing to my knees.

Breathing hard, I barely notice that Akito and Hiro are rushing towards me. But now that the fighting is over, the heat recedes from my body, and my wings retract, leaving my upper back bare. The heat faces from my head as well, and I know that my eyes are retaking their usual color, while those mysterious feather from earlier are disappearing.

"Ciara! Ciara!" Akito shakes me a little, trying to get me to focus. "Ciara! Stay awake!"

But despite their best efforts, everything goes black.


	49. Those Not Forgotten

**And with this comes the end of the Chunin Exams/Konoha Crush arc. Which means that after this chapter starts the Search For Tsunade. And I hope you all know who that means is going to appear...**

 **Okay, so basically, my goal this chapter is to make someone cry. I don't care who (apart from me, of course), I just want to have the satisfaction of making someone cry. And it's a perfect day for it too, it's still raining.**

 **So please, for the sake of my pride, listen to something sad while reading this. I wanna see tears (not like...heart-wrenching tears, just heartfelt tears...).**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

As I float in the darkness, I feel kind of cold. It's a heavy, hazy feeling, like being smothered under an ocean of soaked blankets.

 _Where...am I? Why is it so dark...?_

Then, a warmth grasps my hand, and there's a soft nuzzling against my cheek, also warm. _"Ciara...please wake up..."_ The warmth around my hand tightens, as though trying to drag me out of the cold.

 _Chick, you have been asleep for long enough._ A melodic voice echoes in my head. _It is time for you to wake._

 _"Ciara...come on..."_ The other voice feels so sad, and the grip on my hand tightens further. _"You've gotta wake up..."_ My heart hurts for the owner of the voice, of such a sad and lonely voice.

 _Naruto...?_ I try to move, but it feels like I'm swimming in honey. Cold honey. And it's hard to breathe. _Naruto... Help me..._ I feel like I'm suffocating, drowning in the darkness of my own subconscious.

Then, as though answering my plea, the grip on my hand tightens further, and the cold feeling is driven away slightly. The feeling of swimming in cold honey lessens, as though the honey is melting. I take a deep breath, and for a moment it feels like the darkness spins. Then, it gives way to a soft light.

* * *

Naruto's P.O.V.

As I squeeze her hand, her teammates watch the both of us from their seats on the table at the end of the bed, faces contorted with pain and worry. On the windowsill is the teme, and Sakura is sitting over in a chair next to Kakashi-Sensei. Ciara's sensei is leaning against the wall next to the door, lips pursed and arms crossed.

It's been a rough three days, everyone has been trying to heal from the battles. And...the funeral is scheduled for tomorrow. Everyone knows, everyone except Ciara. She collapsed before anyone could tell her what happened, and she's been asleep for the past three days.

Somehow, our sensei got the bright idea to visit her at the same time, and so, all five of us are here while she sleeps. Though I'm the only one holding onto her hand. I just...feel like I can just wake her up, as long as I'm holding her hand. At least...I sure hope that I can wake her up. I rub my cheek against hers gently, something I used to do to annoy her, since she said that the whisker marks tickle a little.

"Ciara...please wake up..." I squeeze her hand a little tighter. "Ciara...come on... You've gotta wake up..."

Sasuke's eyes drift over, and he frowns slightly. "Wait a second..." His eyes focus on Ciara, and the Sharingan swirls into them. Then, his eyes widen. "Her chakra is back."

"Hm?" Kakashi looks up from his book and slides up his headband to uncover his single Sharingan eye. "Well now...isn't that something?"

With three Sharingan on her, I'm starting to wonder what's up. "What's...going on?"

Kakashi covers his eye back up, and Sasuke's eyes darken again. "Her chakra spiked, and not that weird red and orange stuff either."

Akito's eyes flash dangerously. "Well, whatever you do, don't ask her about it."

"Why?" Sasuke's eyes flick to Akito's challengingly. "After what she did, and what I saw, how can you expect me not to ask?"

Akito growls lowly. "I expect it for her sake. She doesn't like to talk about it. So you'd better wait until she brings it up, or accept that you're not going to know what's up."

Sasuke grits his teeth, but doesn't say a word. Sakura, on the other hand, looks up helplessly. "Is...she going to be okay?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine." My grip on her hand tightens a bit more, and then, she breathes in deeply. Once the air has rushed back out of her mouth, she breathes in again and starts to move, her hand squeezing mine back. "Ciara!"

Eyelids flutter open to reveal the dark, dull green of her eyes. "Naruto...?" She winces slightly, her pupils contracting in the light. "What's...where I am?"

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

"The hospital." Bright blue eyes gaze back at me, right above a bright grin. "You've been out for three whole days."

I blink slowly, trying to let my eyes get used to the light as I sit up in the bed. "Three days?" And despite myself, I feel a smile growing. "That sounds familiar..."

Once my eyes finish adjusting to the light, I let them flick around the room and take in the sight of seven people. Sakura looks like she's going to cry, Akito and Hiro look faintly relieved, Kakashi is somber, Sasuke looks like he's being anti-social, Yuki-Sensei is being surprisingly impassive, and Naruto...he looks like he's battling happiness and pain at the same time.

There's something wrong here. I take a deep breath and turn to Kakashi. "Not that I'm not happy to see you all...but the atmosphere in here seems a little dark, considering that I've woken up." Naruto's hand twitches in mine. "What happened."

There is silence in the room as every expression darkens. A foreboding feeling grips me as Kakashi lifts his head to speak. "During the battle, Lord Hokage passed away."

I feel as though a rock has replaced my stomach. "He...what?"

"It was during his battle with Orochimaru." Kakashi's gaze remains steady, unnaturally steady. "He gave his life to drive Orochimaru back out of the village."

"No..." My hands start to tremble slightly, and it's all I can do to keep my balance, even while sitting. It's happened again. It seems like no matter what I do, I'm doomed to lose everyone. Fate isn't stopping with my immediate family. It's branching out, to those that stretch even beyond the bonds of blood.

Fate despises me.

Naruto's arms wrap around me, and he presses my face to his chest. The cloth starts to dampen around my eyes, and it's only then that I feel the sting of tears. There is no sobbing, no heaving breath, just a quiet, lonely emptiness, coupled with silent weeping.

The old man might not have been the greatest guardian, sticking me in a small apartment out of the way. But he hid me for my own good, to protect me from whoever nearly killed me the first time. Sure, I wish that he'd paid more attention to me. But it's thanks to him that I made a friend, a real friend. The one whose arms are wrapped around me as my grief runs from my eyes.

I want to scream, to thrash, to do something to express the grief and loneliness in my heart. But I can't, I just can't muster the strength to do much more than cry.

"The funeral is going to be held in the morning." I hear Kakashi get to his feet and shuffle around a bit. "Come, Sakura, Sasuke. Let Naruto take her home."

Out of the corner of my eyes, I can see Sakura nod and stand up as well. "Yes Sensei..." Accompanying that is the sound of Sasuke sliding off the windowsill.

Further sounds indicate that Akito and Hiro leave my side, along with Yuki-Sensei. And honestly, I'm grateful for it. I hate crying, especially in front of others. But...as long as it's just Naruto, then I think it can be forgiven.

* * *

There's a knock on my door, long after I've woken up. "Ciara...it's time to go..." It's Naruto.

I sit on my bed, leaning against the wall. And my eyes drift to the crimson clothes laid out on my bed. I've only worn similar garments once before, when my grandmother died. Of course, I was only two years old, so I don't remember her all that well. But I do remember what the red clothing means.

It means to send off someone you love with a fire in your heart. To send them off with honor, love, and passion, not endless mourning and grief. It may not be traditional by most people's standards, but I would do discredit to my ancestors if I were to do anything less.

The sky outside starts to fill with gray clouds, and soon, the sky will no doubt be weeping. It's fitting, I suppose, that even the sky would weep on a day like this. A day on which we say goodbye to some of our village's most talented shinobi. To mothers, fathers, grandparents, family. Today, the sky will weep, for those that cannot.

The red cloth slips over me, revealing the gold embroidery, and the dark blue sleeves that flow out from underneath the sleeveless red piece. It was a birthday gift, a rather morbid one, from the old man, not long before my finals days at the academy. While it reminds me of the formal robes worn once in a while by my father, the red is much darker, the gold sparser, and the blue much more prominent and replacing that which should be white. For what was once such a proud and passionate clan, this is what they considered somber. What we considered somber.

The red, standing for love, honor, and passion. The blue, for grief, for remembrance, and for a steady heart. The gold represents the light in the darkness, the will to keep moving forward, and the promise to carry what we've learned from those who are gone in our hearts. It is not the black of mourning. It is the colors full of promises.

And I suppose that it is fitting that the first time I wear them is for the one who gifted them to me in the first place. I wonder if he knew what I would finally use them for. But I know that he would approve. After all, he wouldn't have given me these clothes if he did not know what they were for. The sleeves even match the blue of our standard shinobi sandals. Once my clothes are straightened out, and the red wraparound tunic is fastened with a blue sash to match the skirt that emerges from the sides split at the hip to fall nearly to my knees, I move towards the door, my feet feeling like lead, rather than like leaves in the wind.

I suppose that it might be considered strange, to be a ninja, but hate death. I know that it is a natural part of life, and I can accept that. But for someone to be cut down before their time is something that I just can't stomach. If it weren't for unfortunate circumstances beyond my control, and my talent that blossomed years after, I likely wouldn't have had to see any death at all. I would have been taught many shinobi arts in the safety of my home, and then be allowed to decide whether or not I wanted to be a ninja in the first place. If only one night hadn't changed everything, I would never have had to see death.

It's why I took up medical ninjutsu, after all. It is why my instincts drive me to fight, to protect those that I hold dear. I will fight to protect those that I have left. But...I must pray that it never drives me to kill.

I look once more around my apartment, and my eyes fall on the magnolia flowers that I grow on my windowsill. I remember the gardens that I used to play in as a child, filled with beautiful flowers. And growing proudly among them was a slew of ancient flowers. Magnolias. As old as the dragons of ancient myth, my father used to say. Those beings so old that humans have no laid eyes on one in thousands of years, long before the dawn of shinobi.

So, I reach for the flowering plant, and pick one of the flowers from it, twirling it between my fingers gently as I snap off the stem. Then, I slip the flower into my sleeve, and head for the door. I know that it is customary to offer a white lotus at a funeral, but that seems too common to me. And I want my offering to mean something. It is my family's flower. And family, true family, in all of its imperfect glory, is what a Shiryugu honors most.

Opening the door quietly, I slip outside without a sound. And my eyes turn upwards towards the darkening sky. "I guess...it's time." I brush my fingers through my hair, done up in two braids that travel back from my temples, the rest of it falling loose in waves. But no doubt, by the end of today, I will look like a drenched sewer rat.

* * *

The funeral is a silent, somber affair from the looks of it. Everyone gathered into neat rows as the rain starts to pour. Everyone in black, no smiles anywhere to be seen.I can hear Konohamaru sniffling, even at the distance I've kept. Very few words are spoken. No long eulogies, no grand speeches.

One by one, the many ninja in attendance approach the pictures laid out in neat rows. Those that fell in defense of the village, whose names will no doubt be added to one of the village's many memorial stones. They lay white lotus flowers there for Gramps, and for all the others who died in the battle.

As the pile of flowers grows, there are few left who still have flowers to give. I'm sure that the Yamanaka flower shop did good business in preparing for this event. Someone should, after all. And I don't know of any others who could prepare such a huge amount of flowers on such short notice.

Finally, as the last flower is placed, I slip off of one of the five small half arches the ring the Hokage Tower. I land as light as a feather as eyes fall on me. Ignoring all of the stares, including the indignant ones from the two elders, I approach Gramps' portrait and look down at it sadly. _You...may not have been everything I could have asked for, and you may not have done everything perfectly. But...you kept me and Naruto alive. Without you, we could have ended up on the street. And knowing who Naruto is, and what he has inside of him, that would have been nothing short of a death sentence. Still, it's been rough, and there's a lot that we could have done better. But I will miss you. I will always miss you..._

I remove my hands from my sleeves and reveal the magnolia blossom that I carry. Instead of placing it in the row with all of the other flowers, I place it right in front of his picture, letting the raindrops bounce off of the waxy petals. My eyes begin to sting again, and though I know that a ninja is not supposed to weep, I don't care. When another piece of my shrinking world comes crashing down, I say that the rules can go to hell. I bring my hands together, slipping them back into my sleeves. And I bow to the portrait, one last show of respect. And it's only now that the rain decides to let up.

As tears, the last few drops of rain, and stray strands of hair stick stubbornly to my face, I turn away from the portraits and walk down through the aisle between the two sides of the crowd. There's no question that everyone can see my tears, but I refuse to be ashamed. I am sad, another piece of my heart has been broken away, and I refuse to pretend like it hasn't, just to cater to someone else's expectations. But I do carry myself with dignity. No matter how hard that is to retain with a long since broken heart.

Once down the stairs and out of sight, I walk slowly through the village, my clothes drenched and sticking to my skin. I look up to where Gramps' face is carved into the Hokage Mountain, a crack spread across the nose and cheeks. _How ominous..._ And ironic that it's only now that I notice it, rather than before I knew he had died.

Then, I look up into the sky, a fresh wave of tears threatening to pepper the ground. _Did...the sky weep this way that night, washing away my family's blood with its sorrow? Did the world mourn for my family? Or were they forgotten, like so many others are simply forgotten...?_

As though to answer my question, the clouds begin to part, and the sun starts peeking through the gray. _No...they have not been forgotten. I'm still here, still alive. And while I'm alive, that legacy will not disappear. I won't let it disappear._

I will never let the people I love disappear. I will fight, no matter what it takes.


	50. Along For The Ride

**So, I started posting stories on Fanfiction about a year ago (well, a year ago on the thirtieth), and in that year, despite my grueling school schedule (fifteen credits a semester), I have managed to post an entire one million words. For that, I am giving myself a well deserved pat on the back. And now, on to the new leg of the journey!**

 **Welcome to the Search for Tsunade arc! I'm planning all sorts of fun for this set of chapters. Starting, of course, with a familiar face that I'm hoping we all love (and one that we might love to hate).**

 **And this chapter is going to do a lot of P.O.V. switching between Ciara and Sasuke. Next chapter, I'll be kicking it off with a P.O.V. not yet seen, and I truly hope to do justice to it.**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

With all of the cleanup from the attack going on, I've been pulling some shifts at the hospital to help out with the fallout. Some ninja are still suffering from injuries, even a couple of weeks after the fact. Not to mention all of the injuries that have been cropping up during the reconstruction. It's incredible, really. Ninja may be good at sneaking about, but give them a hammer and some boards, and somehow, they'll manage to break a leg. It's astounding, really.

It's nearly noon, which means that it's about time for me to go on a lunch break. Which, of course, means retreating to one of the unused medical rooms for some peace and quiet. I can just sit on the windowsill and look up at the sky while I eat.

Unwrapping a sandwich, I sit next to the window and gaze up at the bright blue sky. There's only a few clouds, and the sky is so blue that it reminds me of Naruto's eyes. I smile at the thought, and take a big bite out of my sandwich. _I wonder what Naruto is up to right now...?_ Knowing him, it's lunchtime, so he's probably stuffing his face with ramen.

Suddenly, there's a rustle of leaves, and out of the tree flies a large black bird. It flaps its way towards the window, and perches on the sill right next to me. It's more than a little surprising, since crows don't usually get so close to people. Then I glance down at my sandwich and smile. _Is that what its after?_ I reach into my bag for the other half of the sandwich and slide off some of it. "Here." I hold out the food on my palm.

The crow cocks its head and looks at the sandwich curiously, before turning intelligent eyes on me. Then, it picks the food off my hand and takes off into the air. I watch each flap of its wings as it flies off into the sky, feeling a little wistful.

"Hey there, kid."

I look down to just below the window, where a certain old pervert is sitting on top of a toad. "Oh, hi. Jiraiya, right?"

"Good memory..." He smiles strangely at me. "Tell me, do you feel like going on a little trip outside the village?"

"A trip?" I raise an eyebrow. "What for?"

His smile grows a little bigger. "I'm looking for a woman."

For some reason, that rings a little strange. "Oh? And what's so special about this woman?" If all he wanted was girls to peek at, he hardly has to go on a trip for that, let alone ask me to come along.

His eyes narrow slightly, likely in amusement. "Well, aren't you a sharp one." He beckons out the window. "I've already cleared it with the chief of staff. Why don't you finish up your lunch and get packed. I'll tell you an Naruto a bit more on the road."

As soon as he mentions Naruto, I stuff the rest of my food into my mouth as quickly as I can swallow it. "Alright, give me fifteen minutes to pack my stuff. Should I assume that this is going to take a couple of weeks at least?"

He nods. "Pack for a month, just to be safe."

"Alright." I drop out of the window, being careful not to hit the toad on the way down. "I'll meet you at the front gate."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, I've got a travel bag packed, my medical kit stocked, and my tanto strapped securely to my hips. There's nothing more for me to take without is being pointless and cumbersome. So I lock up my house securely and make for the front gate of the village.

Of course, I suppose that it must be some kind of joke that Izumo and Kotetsu are the ones working the front gate today. And I can't help but smirk when I get close. "So, no genin to harass today?"

The two of them look up at me, and Kotetsu grimaces slightly. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Oh...give it a couple of months, maybe then I'll have forgotten about it." I wave him off easily, my smirk now becoming something of a permanent fixture on my face.

Izumo snickers quietly. "You sure gave us something to think about that day, that's for sure." Then his snickers die down. "It's too bad about the exams, though. I think you'd make a great chunin."

I shrug easily. "It doesn't really matter to me what rank I am. I go where I'm needed and do what I have to. There's not much point in arguing over a designation if I'm already contributing in the ways I do best."

Kotetsu smiles. "Spoken like a true chunin. Maybe next time you'll get that promotion."

"Maybe..." I look back down the path, but so far, there's no sight of either Jiraiya or Naruto.

Izumo watches me curiously. "So...what are you doing here? There's been no word about you having a mission outside the village today."

"I'm not sure if I would call it a mission..." I frown slightly at Jiraiya's absence. "But I've been requested to tag along as part of a traveling group. We're supposed to leave soon."

"Traveling group?" Izumo opens up his ledger and scans down the list. "But...the only person leaving the village soon is..." His eyes widen. "Jiraiya? As in one of the legendary Sannin?"

"Sannin?" I've never heard him called that before. "Well, I don't know about the Sannin part, but yeah, that's him. Tall old guy with white hair, a little too fond of pretty girls..."

Their eyes widen a little, and Izumo closes the ledger. "Uh...well, if you're here waiting for him, then I guess that's okay."

Good." I look back down the road, and a familiar head of bright blond hair appears, dragging along a bag that honestly should be illegal. And as he gets closer, I sweatdrop a little. "Uh...Naruto? Exactly how long are you packing for?"

"Well, you never know what we could run into!" He plops the bag down eagerly, and I swear that it's taller than he is, because it's certainly taller than I am.

"Yoohoo! Brats!" Jiraiya waves to us from down the street. "All ready to go!?"

While I resent the brat label, I glance over at Naruto's bag, which he must have packed half his apartment in. "Well...that's debatable."

Naruto leans down to adjust his sandal quickly, before straightening back up. "Alright, I'm ready." He goes to pick up that monstrous bag of his. "Let's move out!"

Jiraiya sweatdrops a little at the sight of the bag. "You, uh...don't think you might have overdone it a little? You do realize we're not going on a trip around the world, right?"

I groan quietly. "Even if we were going on a trip around the world, I wouldn't pack nearly that heavy..." Mostly because I don't want to lug around that much stuff, since I'm pretty sure that there would be a ton of walking involved.

And that's how we end up waiting an extra half hour for Naruto to return most of the stuff back to his apartment, and come back with a much more reasonable bag for traveling.

* * *

As expected, our trip starts off with a whole lot of walking. And it's not even a half hour in that Naruto is getting over-excited and impatient. "Well, come on Pervy Sage! What's this new jutsu you're gonna teach me!? The last time around, it was the walk on water jutsu!" He stops all of a sudden a crazy grin on his face. "Ooh! Is it walking through fire!? Oh, wait, maybe walking on air?" He catches up quick, his imagination clearly going nuts. "Aw, come on Pervy Sage, let's hear it already!"

"Jiraiya stops in his tracks. "Alright, enough with the Pervy Sage already. You have no idea how amazing a guy I am, do you?"

"Huh?" Naruto cocks his head to the side. "What, amazingly pervy?"

I cover my mouth and try not to look like I'm laughing while Jiraiya sputters. "What!? Argh...you..." He jogs onto a bridge ahead of us and turns to face us dramatically. "Alright, listen up! The Toad Sage is only my cover!" He hops around a little, his arms waving in the air. "Allow me to reveal my true identity." He starts swinging his long mane of hair around, and it makes him almost look like a weird porcupine. "From the north to the south, and the east to the west, not even the spirits can defeat this Sannin!" A toad poofs into existence right under his feet. "The white-maned Toad Charmer! A red-hot ninja who strikes fear in the hearts of men, Master Jiraiya! Yes, I'm speaking of none other than myself!"

Naruto...is not impressed. " ...?"

I cough a little to cover up a strangled laugh. "Uh...maybe I should point out a few things. Like...you're old, we're twelve, and we don't hear a lot of old war stories or anything. So...we've never actually heard of you before." Now that I think about it, it's probably not a good idea for me and Naruto to be off with a strange old man. But...then again, if he went to all of the trouble of making sure that it was okay with the higher ups to take us wherever he's going, then I doubt that we would have been allowed to leave through the front gate if he was a shady guy. He's probably just eccentric.

Really eccentric...

Eventually, we come to a road sign, and Naruto tries reading the directions. "Ah...Atafuku Town, that's ten kilometers from here."

"No...it's Otafuku Town." Jiraiaya corrects Naruto surprisingly patiently, considering how impatient he's been.

"Oh..." NAruto blinks a few times, then nods. Then, he realizes that we've leaving him behind. "Ah, hey, hey, hey! Pervy Sage!"

Jiraiya stops and grumbles slightly. "Look, kid, I told you already, it's Jiraiya. Come on!"

"So, the fact that such a bigwig Pervy Sage chose me as a traveling companion must mean something, right!?" Naruto's grin goes on for miles. "I must be a potential genius in the making! Aw man, it's just like I always thought!" He points right at my face, not even looking at me. "I mean, if you brought her, then that means you see the same kind of potential in me too, right!? Com one, come on, come on! Why'd ya choose me!?" I'm not entirely sure if I should be worried about Naruto thinking that he's a genius all of a sudden, or if I should be happy with the backhanded compliment he just shot me.

Jiraiya bows his head slightly. "Well, the truth is, kid, a long time ago, the Fourth Hokage used to be a disciple of mine." _Wait, what now?_ "And you bear such a striking resemblance to the Fourth that it's almost laughable." Then, he walks right past Naruto. "Sorry, that's the only reason I got for ya."

But upon hearing that, Naruto takes off like he's had way too much sugar. And he's yelling some nonsense about being a genius or something. But this is all starting to seem a little suspicious. _He looks just like the Fourth...? But how is that possible? I've never seen anyone other than Naruto with hair that blond, or eyes that blue._

Then, Naruto goes and steps in some dog crap, and Jiraiya finally loses it. "The only similarities you share with the Fourth Hokage is pigheadedness and that spiky blond hair of yours!"

"What was that, you senile old perv!?" Naruto is getting more worked up by the second. So worked up, in fact, that he goes and steps in yet another pile of the stinky stuff.

I sigh and shake my head. _Why do I get the feeling that these two are going to drive me insane before the trip is over?_ I swear that the two of them are like a couple of little kids.

* * *

We finally stop to take a rest just outside of a small shrine. And while I'm pulling out something to eat, Naruto races up towards the giant bells hung there, and starts ringing them like an excited five year old.

Jiraiya rolls his eyes. "Keep it up...you'll be cursed."

Naruto laughs and makes himself a few clones to play with. "Hey, Pervy Sage. What kind of a student was the Fourth Hokage?"

I stop eating and glance over at Jiraiya, since the answer to that question ought to be interesting. But then a grin crosses his face. "Well, I think it's safe to say that he rose to greatness because of my tutelage. So, to land me as a sensei, well, kid, let's just say you hit the jackpot, okay?" That draws a confused sound out of Naruto. "Oh, what, you don't believe me?" Jiraiya looks mockingly offended. "A good sensei naturally begets good disciples, it goes without saying."

"So, wait a second, Pervy Sage. If that's true, then who did you have for a sensei?" Naruto is bringing up a good question there.

"Who, me?" Jiraiya grins mischievously. "I first studied under the Third Hokage. Of course, this was back when the Third Hokage was still a young spring chicken."

And answer shocks Naruto so much that he and his clones topple over, the three of them disappearing as the bells fall down on Naruto's head. I cringe a little, then turn away and stuff some more food into my mouth. _Under the old man, huh...? I guess that explains why he's such a pervert._ Naruto made sure to regale me with the stories of his Sexy Jutsu escapades while I was working to master the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Needless to say, I'm scarred for life.

Naruto somehow manages to tie himself up with the bells and roll right down the temple steps. But he's still giggling when he hits the ground. "I uh...got a little tangled up."

Jiraiya gets up and shakes his head. "What'd I tell ya? Those curses are no joke." _Curse...? Yeah right. That's just Naruto's clumsiness at work._ "Hm...so wait, if you studied with Kakashi, then that must mean you went through the bell training, am I right?"

"Huh?" Naruto looks confused for a second, before smiling again. "Oh yeah, I did. I forgot about that. Only I was tied to a stump. Man, I forgot how bad all of that stunk."

"Bell training...? Stumps...?" This is starting to sound something like a torture session.

But Jiraiya seems to be a bit more amused than me. "What? You too, huh?"

"Me too?" Naruto frowns. "Me too what?"

"Uh..." Jiraiya backpedals quickly. "Forget about it, just hurry up and put those things back where ya got em."

"Easier said than done! I'm kinda...tied up." Naruto struggles with the bells, only to hopelessly get himself even more tangled up.

"Here...I've got it..." I jump down the stairs and land right next to Naruto. "Now, hold still." I slip my fingers between the ribbons and the material of his jacket, pulling out the ends of the ribbons carefully. I go about unwinding the ribbons slowly, untangling Naruto delicately. "There we go..." As I yank gently on the ribbons, they come loose, and Naruto can slip out of them without knotting himself back up.

He grins like a little maniac. "Wow, that was awesome!" He picks the bells back up and starts running up the steps. "I'll put them back now!"

"Alright..." I giggle a bit as I watch him hang upside down, tying the bells back up. _Well, I hope that he doesn't really get any bad luck. That would suck._ I pick up my bag and sling it back over my shoulder as Jiraiya chuckles. "Hm?"

Naruto catches on and races over. "Hey, what is it!? Come on, spill it! What's so funny, Pervy Sage!?"

"Huh?" He turns to Naruto a bit bemused. But then, a smile replaces his earlier expression. "Ah, come on, kid, just what I was saying before. A good teacher produces good disciples."

"A good teacher, huh?" From what he said earlier, it sounds like Jiraiya went through the bell training as well. And if he went through the bell training, and Kakashi did that with Naruto's team, then there's got to be some kind of connection between Jiraiya and Kakashi. _Hm...maybe...the Fourth Hokage? Jiraiya said that the Fourth was a student of his...so maybe it went from the Third, to Jiraiya, to the Fourth, to Kakashi, and now to Naruto?_ I mull over the theory, then shrug. "Whatever..." It's not worth busting my brain over right now.

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

Kakashi disappeared on me earlier, not that it's much of a surprise. Which is why I'm just outside of his apartment. He'd better have a good reason for being late this time, because I'm not feeling all that forgiving. I push open his door without even knocking. "Kakashi!?" That's when I freeze, because the other genin squad leaders are in the room as well. And Kakashi is lying in bed, clearly unconscious. "Why is Kakashi asleep, and why is this room full of jounin?" This can't possibly be a coincidence. "What are you doing? What's going on here!?" I look around for answers, expecting them quickly.

"Uh...not much, really..." Gai's answer was way too hesitant to be true.

"Hey, is it true that Itachi has returned!?" A new jounin pokes his head in, panicked. "And that he's come here to get Naruto!?"

At the mere mention of that name, all of my blood turns to ice. I push past the new jounin and race out of the room, my heart pounding in my chest. In no time, I'm racing across rooftops, a single destination in mind. _So, he's come back to the village, huh? And he's after Naruto? What does this mean?_ I know where Naruto's apartment is, and that's my first stop.

Luckily, the dobe keeps forgetting to lock his door. So I turn the knob and pull the door open, only to have Sakura nearly tumble onto me. "Hey, Sasuke."

"Where's Naruto!? I have no time for games right now.

"Uh, well...I don't know, I just got here myself." As soon as she's answered my question, I'm gone.

 _If Naruto gets caught, he's dead!_ If he's not at his apartment, then he's probably out training somewhere. But the dobe changes training ground so often that it'll take too long to search the entire village. So, there's only one place to go to get the information I need.

Ciara.

I'm at the hospital in only a couple of minutes, and I head straight for the front desk. I know that she's been pulling a lot of shift here the last couple of weeks. With no missions going on, her medical skills are best put to use here. So I ring the bell for the front desk and a nurse appears in a couple of seconds. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Ciara Shiryugu, she's a genin who's been pulling shifts here at the hospital lately. Do you know where I can find her?" I have no time to beat around the bush, if I can't find her and fast, then I'm just going to have to hit every spot that Naruto likes to hang out. And that'll take forever.

"Ciara?" The nurse blinks quickly, before checking her charts. "Yeah...Ciara...normally, she's in the trauma section, but..." She keeps checking her charts. "That's right, she's been taken off her shifts indefinitely."

"What!?" _She's not here?_ "Why was she taken off her shifts?"

"Hm..." The nurse frowns. "Something about leaving the village for a research trip? I believe that the man called himself Jiraiya. He said that he was hoping to take her along with another genin out to the outpost town, Otafuku."

 _Another genin!?_ It has to be Naruto. If there's a trip involved, there's no way that those two would go without each other. "What did this Jiraiya look like?"

"Hm...tall, definitely over six feet tall. Long white hair, and a headpiece that says hermit on it. He wore huge geta, a red jacket, and had a scroll on his back."

That's definitely enough of a description to work with, especially since I know Naruto and Ciara's appearances well enough that if I had a talent for drawing, I could do it blindfolded. I race out of the hospital and towards the village wall. It's better for me to just bypass the gate, since I don't need anything slowing me down.

Because if I don't hurry, both of them are going to die.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

Walking into the town, it's definitely nothing like I expected. And Naruto either, by the looks of it. He looks around in a daze."Oh man, this town is pretty weird."

"Yeah..." I look around, and everywhere I look, there's something I've never seen before. _I really need to get out more..._

"Naruto, Ciara!" Jiraiya calls our attention towards an inn. "We're gonna crash here tonight."

"Huh!? What!? But why!?" Naruto puts up a fuss in an instant. "I can still walk."

While I'm suspicious of the motives, I'm definitely not going to lie. "Same here, I've still got a few kilometers left in me today."

Jiraiya snorts a little. "A disciple should always obey their master."

"Look, I just wanna learn some jutsu, okay?" Naruto huffs impatiently, his enthusiasm getting the better of him.

I cross my arms defiantly. "And last I checked, I'm only along for the ride. I don't ever remember you offering to train me." _Though...if he can teach me how to wield lightning, earth, or water, I certainly won't complain about it._

Jiraiya sighs exasperatedly. "Alright, alright, I get it, you two both want to learn something. That's what makes you disciples." He now seems to be implying that I will indeed be learning something on this trip. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

And of course, that's when a pretty lady happens to walk by the front of the inn. _And...I can already see where this is going..._ She flips her hair suggestively at Jiraiya, and even Naruto is caught by the spell. Then, Jiraiya shoves a key into Naruto's hands. "Here's the room key, I want you to go right up to the room, train for a little, work on your chakra, ask Ciara for help if you need it, then get to bed, okay?"

Naruto blows up in less than half a second. "Oh, so I suppose you're gonna tell me it's time for the grownups to play now? Is that the vibe here, you big perv!?"

"Alright! You two be good!" Jiraiya disappears so quickly that it's like he was never even there in the first place.

So, that leaves me to drag Naruto upstairs, since I have absolutely no interest in watching Jiraiya do...whatever it is he's planning on doing. "Come on, let's just get to our room and get ready for bed. If we go to sleep early, then maybe we can get an early start to the day tomorrow."

"Aw...come on, why does he get to have all the fun!?" Naruto grumbles as I drag him upstairs.

Still, I fight the urge to cringe. "Do you really want to participate in whatever games that pervert has in mind?" I look back at Naruto seriously as I open up our room. "Because I sure don't. I'm twelve, which means that I am perfectly happy leaving the grownup games to the grownups. Maybe I'll be more interested in four or five years, but definitely not right now." Because I know more than enough about anatomy to know how the kunai and pouches metaphors apply.

"Fine..." Naruto grumbles as he tosses his pack inside and claims a bed. Then, he sits down and pulls his hands together so that he can focus on some chakra training. "Aw, man...every single time I'm with that Pervy Sage, I always end up getting shafted."

I cringe at his unintentional joke, as well as at the memory of some rather crude patients. _What did I do to get stuck with a couple of idiots...?_

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

This place is huge,and there are inns everywhere. I feel like I've checked half of the inns in this place. It seems like Naruto is just nowhere to be found. And I've gotten only one lead that turned out to be a false lead.

 _Okay...so how do I find them? There's got to be something that makes them different from anyone else in this town._ I wrack my brain, trying to come up with a solution. And just as I pinch the bridge of my nose, it hits me. I get a flash of one of the times that Ciara's tended to my eyes. _Her chakra! It's white!_ She's the only person I've seen with white chakra before, so if I can find that, I'll find her and the dobe, no problem.

I activate my Sharingan, and race through the streets, letting my eyes guide me. And then, about five minutes later, I get a hit. Up on the second floor of one of the inns, there's a person with white chakra flowing through them. It's resting, but from the looks of it, she's agitated. And not in a good way. And right next to her are three other chakra signatures. One of them is definitely Naruto's.

 _Found you!_

And that means that I've found Itachi too.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

There's a knocking on the door all of a sudden, and Naruto finally dispels all of his clones, who ironically fell asleep when they were supposed to be doing the training too. He grumbles and gets to his feet. "Ugh, what now? Are you telling me she dumped you already." There's another knock, and Naruto just gets even more annoyed. "I heard you the first time!" He walks to the door and pulls out the key. "Alright, hold on, just let me unlock it."

He opens the door, but instead of Jiraiya's voice, there's only silence. And that freaks me out for a second. "Naruto, who's there?" I poke my head around the corner, only to see a pair of ruby red eyes staring at me, towering over Naruto, who is frozen in fear.

But while Naruto stays frozen to the spot, memories come rushing back to me all at once, and I find myself leaping off the bed. "Chi-Chi!" I barrel into him, gripping the front of his cloak tightly. Though, as usual, he's easily a foot and a half taller than me, and I barely come up to mid-chest on him.

"Hm...what an unexpected surprise. I didn't realize that you'd be recognized so easily, Itachi." Another man appears at the door, even taller than Itachi. "There must be a story there...Chi-Chi." Then, his eyes flick to Naruto. "Hmph, hard to believe that such a child carries the Nine-Tailed Fox."

Instantly, my blood runs cold, and my grip loosens. My hands fall away from Itachi's cloak and I back away, putting myself between them and Naruto. "What...do you want with us?"

Itachi's eyes flick down to me, a coldness in his eyes that I've never seen before. A forced coldness. Then, his eyes drift behind me. "Naruto, you're coming with us."

Naruto trembles a little behind me, I can feel the vibrations in the air. "Ciara, who...is this guy? Why do you know him?"

"He's..." I take a deep breath and look fearlessly into the eyes of one of the people I love most. "Well, I guess you could say that he's my uncle. Though technically, I suppose that cousin would be more accurate. Right, Itachi?"

Despite the unusual coldness in his eyes, there is also a flicker of recognition in their depths. And like the saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul. He knows who I am. But if I'm going to keep their attention off of Naruto and divide their focus, then it's about time he knows what I am. Because I'm along for this crazy ride too.

"Now, I'm going to ask one more time." I look up at the tall man with the blue skin. My eyes burn with the fire that rages in my heart. "What do you want with us?"


	51. An Unfortunate Family Reunion

**And now, for something that has been a long time coming. Itachi's P.O.V. I'm going to try to stay as true to his character as I can...within reason. After all, he knows how he's supposed to act around Sasuke. Having Ciara there is a bit of a curveball, to put it lightly.**

 **Oh, and if anyone can guess at the reasons why I chose white for her personal chakra color, I'd be interested to hear what your theories are.**

* * *

Itachi's P.O.V.

"What do you want with us?" Irises, once a deep green, are now golden in the center, blending into orange, and then red. Unearthly eyes that speak of power, power that I've never seen before. It's a dramatic shift from the white chakra I saw when she poked her head around the corner after I knocked on the door. Now, she looks like a living fire.

The little girl that I once knew is no longer the delicate child that I watched grow up. In front of me is a young, but fierce warrior. And by her posture, she is clearly protecting someone she would call a friend. And while it would seem that she is certainly aware of me, it is obvious that between the two of us, she sees Kisame as the threat.

 _What do you want with us?_ Her words imply that she and Naruto Uzumaki are closely tied together. At first, I wondered briefly if it was just because the two of them appear to stick together like glue. But now, looking at her eyes, I have to wonder if she means something entirely different. Because those are not the eyes of a ninja, and not even the eyes her father possessed.

 _No...these are a jinchuuriki's eyes. But...how?_

Nevertheless, we are here to collect Naruto, no matter how much I might wish otherwise. And while I would prefer Ciara to stay out of this, that clearly is not going to happen. So, I must offer an alternative. "Why don't we take a walk?"

Ciara's eye focus now on me, rather than on Kisame. And for a moment, it would seem that she is debating whether or not to take her chances in a battle with the two of us. The fact that she would even consider it means that she has clearly grown in skill, because those are not the eyes of a reckless genin. No, those are the eyes of someone who is truly weighing their chances, and deciding on whether or not it is worth causing massive destruction in order to protect her friend.

That is why it is best to resolve this quietly. "Well, Ciara?"

For a moment, she remains tightly on guard, then she relaxes her posture, thought not her eyes. Her eyes remain trained on both my partner and I, all of her suspicion directed onto Kisame, seemingly secure in her belief that I will not harm her.

She is not wrong. Though I will subdue her if I must.

Slowly, she steps out of the room, never once letting Kisame out of her sight. My partner chuckles at her antics. "Well, isn't she a suspicious one? I didn't know that you had a Jinchuuriki for a niece." He fingers his sword's hilt as Naruto follows her out of the room. "Hey, Itachi, it would be a pain in the neck if these brats were to make a run for it. Maybe I outta...chop off a leg, just in case."

Despite the threat, Ciara simply places herself back between Kisame and Naruto, the expression on her face very clear. She expects to have to defend Naruto all by herself. That, of course, grants me two opportunities. "Kisame, if you injure her permanently, you will never escape my Tsukuyomi."

"Oh?" He glances at me questioningly. "So it's not true, then, that you annihilated your entire clan?"

"You...what?" Ciara's voice becomes quiet, fear finally coloring it, along with pain, anger, confusion, and most of all...sadness.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

I can hardly breathe after that unwanted revelation. _He...no way, there's no way that Itachi could do something like that! Not if he had a choice! But..._ It certainly doesn't change the fact that the Uchiha Clan is nearly gone, and back in the Leaf, Sasuke is all that's left.

"She is not an Uchiha." Itachi looks down at me, his eyes unreadable. "Her clan simply absorbed many Uchiha over the decades after the Hidden Leaf was formed. Her paternal grandmother, included."

"So...that's why she calls you her uncle?" The one called Kisame hefts the huge sword over his shoulder lazily. "How cute."

Then, there's a sound down at the other end of the corridor, and Itachi's eyes flash a little. "It's been a long time, Sasuke."

At the other end of the hallway, Sasuke is standing there, looking like he ran a marathon. But judging by the way his eyes are screaming murder, he doesn't care. "Itachi Uchiha..."

"Well..." Kisame lowers his arm away from his sword. "The Sharingan. And he looks an awful lot like you. Itachi, who are these kids?"

"He's my younger brother." _Wait, younger brother!?_ He doesn't even turn around in acknowledgement, though. "And she is the niece of the man who was once my best friend. She is the last of her clan. A Shiryugu."

"Oh?" That seems to pique Kisame's curiosity. "That dragon clan, huh? I thought they went extinct."

"Obviously not." I grit my teeth and sink lower, ready to throw him through a wall if he gets much closer. And if I had claws, they would most certainly be twitching right now.

"That's strange...cause the way I heard it, the whole Uchiha Clan was wiped out...by you, two years after those dragons were hunted to extinction." Kisame says it so callously, with no regard for the kind of pain that those memories bring.

But Sasuke isn't having any of it. "Itachi Uchiha...I hope you're ready to die."

Finally, Sasuke has Itachi's full attention. But I'm hopelessly confused. None of this makes any sense at all. Itachi is too kind a person to go and massacre a whole clan. I know it. Doing something like that would break his heart.

"It's just as you said, brother." Chakra starts to flow around Sasuke in violent bursts. "I fostered my hatred for you all this time. I've lived my life for one single purpose." Lightning sparks in his hand, and the unique sound of Chidori crackles through the air. "To see you die! It ends here!"

"Chidori...?" Itachi, rather than being suitably concerned by the attack, merely seems vaguely amused.

"Enough!" Sasuke drives his Chidori against the wall. "You're dead!" He swings his arm at Itachi, aiming the jab right at Itachi's heart. "Die!"

The clash results in a deafening explosion that blows out a portion of the wall. But when the dust settles, I'm not sure if I should be glad that Itachi has escaped unscathed, or afraid, because he now has Sasuke by the wrist. When I hear a deafening crack that signals Itachi's breaking of Sasuke's wrist, I decide that it's definitely the latter.

"Sasuke!" Naruto, out of sheer desperation, summons up the Fox's chakra in a last ditch attempt to join the looming battle that he's been scared shitless of. "Alright, that's it! Ciara, move it!"

But just as I dodge to the side and he starts making hand signs, Kisame swings that bandaged sword down, and Naruto's chakra just disappears. Naruto visibly begins to panic, so I draw back and pull him away with me, keeping both men directly in my line of sight.

Kisame withdraws his sword without a care. "Sorry kid, my blade, Samehada, cuts through chakra and devours it." His hand twitches slightly. "We don't need the hassle of this kid whipping out any more jutsu. forget the legs, maybe I outta start off with those arms of his."

"Naruto, whatever you do, stay behind me." My chakra flares powerfully, and from my back, my huge scarlet wings emerge, filling the hallway between me and Naruto, effectively blocking him from view.

"Oh? That's a new one. I haven't heard of any of the tailed beasts having wings like that." I can just see Kisame grinning from behind that high collar. "Let's drag her back with us, I'm sure that we can have all sorts of fun figuring out what she is."

I don't like the sound of whatever he would consider fun. But I've got bigger problems than worrying about myself at the moment. Clearly, something is seriously wrong with Itachi, we've got a psychotic fishman with a chakra absorbing sword, and Naruto and Sasuke are on opposite sides of these guys.

 _Okay...I could grab Naruto and try to make a break through them, grab Sasuke and get out. But that would leave my back open to attack, and Kisame would use that sword of his to take me down in one strike. I could toss Naruto the other way and go for Sasuke. Without Naruto's weight, I could probably outrun Kisame's giant sword. That would get Sasuke out of the way, but Naruto would be left vulnerable. Conversely, if I stay here, then I'm leaving Sasuke out in the open._

 _Why is it that I keep finding myself in bad situations like this, where there's no way to save everyone without help?_

Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to choose a fourth option, taking Kisame head on, because he swings the sword down towards me. If I dodge it, Naruto will take it in the head, and that's definitely not an option. So, I turn around, lock my wings together, and let them take the brunt of the impact. There's a sickening crunching sound, and I feel like the air is being vacuumed out of my lungs. My head starts to spin, and then I realize that he's sucked out most of the chakra I've manifested. The wings disappear with a painful crunching, and my entire body throbs with pain.

But, since I'm still in one piece, Kisame raises his sword again. "Well, you're a tough one, aren't you? Too bad, but it looks like I'm going to have to break you."

Itachi's eyes find Kisame as the giant blue shark-man swings the sword back down. But now, I'm too tired and in too much pain to move. And the sword comes right down on top of me. I close my eyes, prepared for the pain. And Naruto's voice echoes across the hallway. "Ciara, no!" There's a loud pop, and the smell of smoke.

But the pain never comes. So I open my eyes, and sitting there in front of me is...a giant toad. Then, there's a pop behind us, and a familiar, deep voice chuckles slightly. "You two don't know me at all, do ya? Should'a done your homework. Jiraiya the Toad Sage falls victim to no woman's charm. Rare beauties drop for me like blossoms in a storm. It isn't in my nature to be duped by the wiles of women. When you reach the stature I have, the ladies kneel and worship at your awesomeness!" And I could almost believe that because of his timing.

But I've seen him peek at girls, so I don't believe a word of it. He's a skirt chaser if I've ever seen one. So, I groan slightly. "Nice move...but terrible speech. You're a skirt chaser and we all know it."

"Yeah, don't give us that!" Naruto turns around, completely forgetting the enemy, and glares at the old pervert. "One wink from a pretty girl and you turned into a mountain of mush! You fell for it like a ton of bricks, Pervy Sage!" _Don't forget the steel beams..._

Jiraiya rubs the back of his head abashedly. "I really wish you wouldn't call me that in front of other people."

I groan once more. "Keep it up, and I'll be calling you that as well." _It's not like you haven't done anything to deserve it._

"Are you kidding me!?" Naruto finally flies right off the handle. "We've got worse things to worry about than what these guys think of you! Get with it, Pervy Sage!"

Resting my forehead in my palm, I sigh. _Great...our knight in shining armor comes to the rescue with an unconscious woman in his arms. And now he can't stop fighting with one of the people he's supposed to be rescuing. Why did I agree to come along, again? This is ridiculous..._

But rather than continuing to focus on the two idiots behind me, I find my gaze gravitating towards the man I've known since I was a child. It's been five years since I last saw him, and on the outside, it's almost like he's a different person. I remember when he used to give me piggyback rides and play in the grass with me. The doggy piles with Shisui lying on the bottom, half crushed under the weight of the two of us, but never complaining, not even once.

Now, I can't sense the affection that I'd grown used to feeling from him. That said, I can't feel any malice either. I don't know exactly what he wants, but I'm sure of one thing. Right now, he has no desire or intention to hurt me. _But...could he ever really want to hurt me?_

His partner, on the other hand, clearly wants nothing more than to slice me to ribbons. Or at least start to dismember me. I'm honestly not sure which would be worse.

And the fish man starts to laugh at the idiots behind me. "Whatever name you go by, Master Jiraiya, I must say you're something of a disappointment. A lecherous old man with the disposition of a child. It's almost impossible to believe that you are one of the Three Legendary Sannin."

"Wha-! You already know who he is!?" Naruto seems shocked that other people can recognize Jiraiya on sight. In fact, it seems to be us who are the weird ones, being too young to really know what's so special about the old man. That, or Kisame is just really old...

I'm not ruling that last one out.

"Uh...don't be fooled by appearances, or anything these little squirts might say." I glare at Jiraiya for his use of the term squirt. I got enough harassment from the moron on the floor during the month before the Chunin Exam finals.

Kisame's beady fish eyes flick to Jiraiya. "Oh, so you somehow managed to release the genjutsu we cast on her, eh?"

"What kind of coward would do something like that?" Jiraiya gently lays the lady down against the wall. "Using his Sharingan to inflict a genjutsu on an innocent woman? All in order to separate Naruto from me. I know that he's the one you're really after." He gets back up, a slight smirk on his face. "Though, I'd say that your calculations fell short, isn't that right? You probably hadn't accounted for Ciara's little surprise, did you? You only expected to have to deal with Naruto, assuming that the little girl was nothing to sneeze at. Though, it would have been much easier if you hadn't seen her power." He stares straight into my eyes and shakes his head. "Well, it's too late for that now, anyway."

Itachi's gaze stays relatively steady. "That explains how Kakashi knew. Now I understand...he learned it from you." His eyes flick down to Naruto. "You're right, Naruto is the prize that the Akatsuki are after. And we will have him. But..." His eyes drift back to me. "You're right, Ciara is a complication I did not expect."

"Hm...I thought that we had all of our targets identified." Kisame grins, displaying wicked shark-like teeth. "I didn't know that there was another one hiding in the Leaf Village. Looks like the little dragon is actually a demon."

I twitch, gritting my teeth together as I pull myself back into a defensive stance. "I don't think that you really know what that means..." I slip one of the tanto out of its sheath and run chakra along it. Itachi's eyes flick to it, and that's when I feel the engraving under my fingers. And it's no wonder that he recognizes the weapon. It used to be his, after all.

"Calm down, kid." Jiraiya pats me on the shoulder. "I've seen your jutsu. If you try to take them down here, you'll blow this whole building apart in the attempt. As for you two..." The toad disappears and Jiraiya looks more serious now than I've ever seen him. "No way are you getting either of them."

"We'll see about that." Itachi still looks rather calm, despite the fact that I'm the one currently holding a very deadly weapon.

Jiraiya shuffles me and Naruto back a little, giving him a clear shot at the two. "Actually, this is all very convenient. I can eliminate you both at the same time."

 _What!?_ The only one I want to get rid of is Fish Face. Itachi is a whole other story. I want to know just what the hell is going on. And then, I want to drag him home with me. Five years is way too long to have gone without seeing him, and he's got some serious explaining to do, because none of what he's doing is making any sense. The only conclusion I can come to is that he's being coerced or something, because the Itachi that I know would never do anything like this.

"Stay out of this!" Sasuke groans as he gets back on his feet. "The only one who's going to eliminate him...is me!"

Itachi turns to Sasuke, his voice callous and rough. "Go away, you don't interest me at the moment."

I hiss in frustration, questions trying to jump around and explode in my head. "Dammit, Chi-Chi! What the hell is going on!? What's this about being after Naruto!? And wiping out the Uchiha Clan!? You just up and disappear for five years, and all you say is 'I did something bad'!?" My anger and resentment is pouring out of me in waves, and I seem to have stunned everyone into silence. "And where is Shi-Shi!? What happened, why haven't I seen him since you left!?" My grip on my weapon tightens. "What happened to not leaving me alone!?"

With all of my questions out in the open, Itachi turns slowly to me. "Shisui is dead, along with the rest of the Uchiha Clan. I left the Hidden Leaf after killing every last one of them." Every one, but Sasuke. Though that remains unsaid.

"What...?" _No...he couldn't have...Itachi couldn't have just massacred his entire clan..._ It's a notion that shouldn't even exist. Gentle, kind, and loving Itachi couldn't possibly just up and kill his clan in cold blood. _It's impossible..._

"Ciara, that's the truth." Jiraiya's gaze grows colder. "Whatever you think you know about Itachi Uchiha...you had best reconsider it. That man there is an enemy."

"But..." Then, my eyes widen as Sasuke races up behind Itachi, aiming a punch straight to his elder brother's head. But Itachi just turns halfway around and kicks Sasuke in the stomach, sending him flying all the way down the hallway to slam into the wall.

"Sasuke, no!" Naruto charges ahead towards Itachi. "Why you lousy..."

"No, Naruto!" Sasuke lifts up his head. "Don't butt in! Mind your own business!" He struggles to his feet as Naruto skids to a stop. "I told you before, I've lived my whole life for this day, this moment." His Sharingan activates in an instant. "This fight is mine!"

He races at Itachi again with a punch, only to have it blocked. Itachi smacks him in the face and sends him flying right back into that wall. But he's stubborn, still struggling to get back up. "Not...finished...this fight is mine."

Itachi's gaze softens for a moment, then hardens. "So be it."

Jiraiya makes a start forwards, but Kisame cuts him off with that huge sword of his. "You heard him, old man, this fight is none of our business. Let's let the two of them sort it out."

Itachi strides towards Sasuke, who leaps up in an instant, only to be put right back down with a punch to the gut, right where he took that kick earlier. Then, Itachi elbows him in the back of the neck, and knees him right in the gut to straighten him back up a little.

I start to tremble at the sight. It hurts to see Itachi hurting Sasuke. "Itachi, stop! Stop hurting him!"

Itachi lets Sasuke drop to the ground briefly, then, picks him up by the collar and pins him to the wall. He whispers something to Sasuke, before a pair of onyx eyes widen in fear. Sasuke looses a heart-wrenching scream.

"Isn't that heart-warming? Using Tsukuyomi on his own brother." Kisame grins a little. _Tsukuyomi? What's that? Some kind of ninjutsu? Or...is it genjutsu? Did Itachi just cast a genjutsu on Sasuke?_

Then, Sasuke falls silent, obviously having lost consciousness. And while that sends molten metal coursing through my veins, it's Naruto who blows his top first. "That does it, I'm through standing around!" Naruto races for Itachi and Sasuke, only for Kisame to go in pursuit.

But I'm faster, I know that very well. And in a flash, I'm on the ceiling, and in another, I'm dropping right in-between Sasuke and Itachi, anger flickering through my eyes like flames. Right now, it doesn't matter who is who, I just need to separate these two. My tanto slices through the air, and I just nick the sleeve of Itachi's black robes, adorned with a speckling of red clouds.

Once he's a safe distance away, I grab hold of Sasuke and raise my tanto. Then, something sticky grabs hold of my feet, and all around me, the walls and floor are being covered in gross, weird-smelling pink stuff. _What the hell!?_ Itachi backs away, his focus now on the strange jutsu being used.

Then, things start getting really weird, because Sasuke and I are being sucked into the wall. So, I put away my tanto, dispelling the aura of wind around it as the pink sticky stuff wraps its way around my body. It blocks out all of the light, and I think that I'll have to bathe for a week straight to get the smell out of my hair. But on the bright side, I've still got hold of Sasuke. He's safe.

I think.

About two minutes, and far too many stinky breaths later, the wall starts to undulate, loosening around us. And it spits us out gently enough for me to get out first and lower Sasuke safely to the floor. Naruto runs over as the jutsu starts to disappear. "Ciara! Sasuke!"

"I've got him..." But as I look down at Sasuke, his eyes are unnaturally blank. _Sasuke...what did Itachi do to you...? And why? What happened to make him change like this?_

But just as I'm asking myself those futile questions, for Itachi is clearly long gone, a kunai flies into the hall, followed by a bright green blur with a bowl cut. "Dynamic Entry!" And Gai nails Jiraiya right in the face with a mighty kick.

I sigh, and resist the urge to bang my head against the wall. Fortunately, Sasuke's listless condition gives me something to focus on, rather than the two adults being total headcases. I let my hand glow with a soft white light, and I pass it over Sasuke's broken form. _He...really messed you up... There are broken bones, including a couple of ribs...some light internal bleeding, and then..._ I move my hand up towards his head, and the chakra there feels all messed up. _There's that...And I have no clue how to deal with that..._ So, I reach for my medical kit and take out bandages and metal splints.

After about ten minutes of tending to his broken wrist, his many cuts and bruises, along with as much of the internal damage as I can deal with, I look up to Jiraiya and Gai, who have long since finished talking. "He's in bad shape. There's still some damage on the inside that needs dealing with by a professional. His left wrist and a couple of ribs are broken. It's important that he not be jostled too much on the way back. And..." I touch his forehead gently. "There's something seriously wrong with his chakra, and it's messing around with his brain. I...have no idea how to deal with that."

Naruto starts to panic a bit. "Pervy Sage, Sasuke's going to be alright, isn't he?"

"Physically, yes." Jiraiya's gaze darkens. "But I am worried about what may have been done to his mind."

"What the heck..." Naruto grits his teeth, his whole body shaking in anger. "What did Sasuke ever do to deserve this?"

"Nothing..." My heart feels like it's slowly turning to stone. "But that doesn't mean that things like this don't happen to people who did nothing to deserve it."

Naruto hisses angrily, turning away from me. "Okay, Pervy Sage. It's time for a new gameplan, starting right now. I admit, I let those goons scare me a little, but that's it, no more running. After all, it's me they're after, right? Well, okay then! It's time I give them what they want!"

I play a little with Sasuke's hair, focusing hard on Naruto's words. "Not just you..." _If only Sasuke hadn't been here...Itachi came here for Naruto. Me getting in the way is one thing, but Sasuke...he shouldn't have been here in the first place._

"Hmph, nice speech kid, but I'm afraid you wouldn't stand a chance against them. You're not in the same league." He glances down at me as well. "And you're barely any better off. Sure, you can summon your inner power at will, and that gives you a big advantage over Naruto. But you don't have the stamina to keep it up for an entire battle, and that's what'll get you killed." _Stamina, again!?_ "What would have happened if I hadn't shown up just now? It took all I had just to get them away from you."

"Is that right!?" Naruto is thinking with his heart right now, instead of his head. "So what are you suggesting!? That we just do nothing!? Sit here waiting for them to hit us again? What kind of strategy is that?"

"Just be quiet!" Jiraiya silences Naruto in an instant. "You haven't earned the right..." Then, he sighs and turns to the green monstrosity. "I'm sorry, Gai. I wanted to let Sasuke fight his own fight. I see now I should have intervened sooner."

Gai peers down at Sasuke rather curiously. "This is obviously the same kind of jutsu that Kakashi was hit with. We don't know when he'll come out of it."

"What!? Kakashi-Sensei?" Naruto seems shocked, but I'm more concerned about the fact that there seems to be something dangerous being wielded here. And I have no idea why Itachi would do something like this.

Gai sighs quietly. "There's nothing worse than seeing your students fall in battle. It's like...losing little pieces of your soul. What we need is a supreme medical specialist, a master of healing arts. And soon." And clearly, that is not me.

"You're right." Jiraya's no nonsense attitude has surprisingly lasted this long. "And the woman you're talking about is the one we've come to find."

"The woman...?" Gai's eyes widen. "You don't mean-"

Jiraiya laughs. "Yes, that's exactly who I mean. Another of the Legendary Sannin. The Queen of Slugs and Elixirs. The Gambling Fool and Mistress of the Healing Arts, Lady Tsunade."

Now, the pieces are starting to click into place. But for now, the four of us, with Sasuke steady on Gai's back, make our way out to the town gates. I can't stop staring at Sasuke, silently willing him to just wake up. Though with no visible results.

"Okay, Gai, we'll leave Sasuke in your hands." Jiraiya, unlike me, is keeping perfectly calm.

"Master Jiraiya." Gai looks up to the old pervert with an expression showing far too much respect for the lecherous old man. "Find Lady Tsunade, bring her back to us."

"Don't worry, you can count on us!" Naruto smiles determinedly. "We'll have her back in the village in no time!" And his determination earns him a chuckle and a pat on the head from Jiraiya.

Gai nods approvingly. "Naruto, nothing impresses me more than guts, kid. Come here, let me give you this. Lee got stronger with this..." He reaches into a pocket that I didn't even know that monstrous jumpsuit had, and pulls out another jumpsuit, this one small enough for Naruto. "Check it out! It's breathable, retains moisture, and provides freedom of movement, all in one sweet package. If you wear it while you train, you'll notice a difference immediately. They really grow on ya. Pretty soon, you'll be wearin' them all the time, just like Lee. I've got a bit of a thing for them myself."

I try not to gag at the offer of that green scourge to the earth. _I can''t believe that he's actually pitching for Naruto to wear that ugly thing..._ And I certainly hope to never see Naruto in it, himself.

Naruto gets a little excited over it, so Jiraiya nudges me slightly. "If he ever wears that thing, burn it."

"My pleasure..." I turn my gaze on Gai, still worried about Sasuke. "Hey..."

"Hm?" My voice distracts him from Naruto's excitement over the green suit, "Something wrong?"

I shake my head and look back to that head of raven hair. "Just...be careful with my cousin, okay?"

"Your-" His eyes widen, then he nods. "Leave it to me. I'll have him back at the hospital in no time." He gives us a small salute, before taking off back towards the Leaf.

And Naruto is standing there, still fawning over the jumpsuit. I scrunch my nose up at it and give it my best version of Sasuke's Death Glare, though I'm sure that I do it no justice. Though the thing deserves it, it's completely hideous. And that's coming from someone who likes the color green!

"If you wear that thing, I will burn it with you still inside."


	52. The Search Begins

**Alright, so I'm finally back. I had a midterm, then an essay, another midterm, an essay, midterm, and finally another essay due all in less than two weeks, and I have a few more things due this coming week as well (seminar questions, an essay outline, and a lab report). So...I've been quite busy.**

 **On another note, I've finally got my laptop back, and I've spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours downloading all of my games and software back onto it. You know like I-Tunes, Scrivener, my Steam copy of Skyrim, Origin and all of my Dragon Age and Sims games (Sims 4 is currently being downloaded). All the fun stuff. Though I still need to re-download my Fairy Tail collection. A whole hundred and sixty episodes of it. Yeah...that's going to take a while.**

 **So...I really hope that I did Itachi's P.O.V. well last chapter. I was trying to go for stoic on the outside, less so on the inside.**

 **I'm also averaging almost 4.5k words per chapter, which is nice. I feel like it's making up for some of those pitifully short chapters at the beginning. And I hope that the length of this chapter makes up for not updating for a while.**

* * *

Thankfully, Naruto has relented to the point of stashing that green horror in his bag. Though I think that one of these nights, I'm going to pull it out of his pack and burn it anyway. The orange, though annoying at times, and overall too bright, flatters Naruto's bright hair and tanned skin. The green, though...that's just a fashion disaster waiting to happen.

Ino and Sakura would definitely agree with me.

For now, though, I'm perfectly happy to be walking again, anything to take my mind off of that unpleasant confrontation yesterday. Naruto, on the other hand, seems to have his mind on other things, because he stops all of a sudden.

I stop as well, feeling a little worried. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Jiraiya looks back curiously. "What's up?"

"So...Pervy Sage." Naruto sounds awfully serious, despite the lecherous nickname he insists on using. "What exactly do those guys want with me, anyway?" But when Jiraiya doesn't answer, Naruto looks up stubbornly. "Come on, out with it Pervy Sage. You know, don't you?"

For a moment, he's silent, then he smiles slightly. "Don't get the wrong idea. It's not you they want, it's what's inside of you."

Naruto knows what that means, and he looks down at him stomach. "What the heck is this thing anyway. Some horrible demon that terrorized the Leaf Village...that's why everyone's so afraid of it, right? So why do these guys want it so bad?"

Jiraiya takes a deep breath. "The Nine-Tailed Fox has appeared in times of consequence all through the ages. A ghastly spirit that destroys all that lay in its path. As powerful as any act of nature, men trembled before it." That's one way to put it, I suppose. "As for what they would want with that malicious monstrosity, that's a hard question to answer, Naruto. I honestly can't say. I suppose...with the Nine-Tails sealed up inside of you, they might be thinking of somehow seizing control of that power, bending it to their will. It's a bitter pill to swallow, knowing those two will be after you now. But that is your fate."

Naruto clutches at his stomach almost protectively. Then, his head snaps up and he stares at me. "What about-"

"You mean Suzaku...?" I touch my stomach gently. "According to him...he is much like the Fox. Humans would call him a demon...but I don't know if it's really that simple. He's not cruel, he doesn't want to destroy anything."

Jiraiya frowns at me slightly. "How did you come to be the vessel for such a power?"

I bite my lip, calling up some rather unpleasant memories. "I...had him sealed into me when I was five years old. My family's estate had just been attacked, and almost everyone was dead. I was lying in the grass, dying, but my Uncle Kyoshi...he called for help, and a bright reddish light appeared above my head. He spoke to it, and then used the last of his chakra to seal that power inside of me. And a few months ago, I started to hear him speak."

Jiraiya nods solemnly. "Sealing an entity that powerful into a dying child would certainly improve the kid's chances at survival." Then, he frowns. "But...you said that you can speak to it, right?"

"Him, I can speak to him." I really don't want to call the one who shares my body an it. "His name is Suzaku. And yes, I can speak to him. Sometimes he answers, sometimes he doesn't. And sometimes he talks to me all by himself. That's how I first spoke to him, he talked to me while I was walking around Tazuna's village."

"I see..." Jiraiya stares carefully at my stomach. "Has he ever tried to take over your mind?"

"Huh?" That makes me feel a little angry. "I let him take over my body once, during the Chunin Exam. He wrote the first part of the exam for me."

"He wrote the exam for you?" Jiraiya looks rather perplexed. "And he hasn't tried to break through the seal?"

I shake my head. "No...he says that he is within me of his own free will. He agreed to be sealed inside of me so that I could live." I rub my stomach gently. "He...calls me chick, like I'm his own child."

"Chick, huh?" Jiraiya now seems rather fascinated, rather than perplexed. "Exactly what is he?"

"He is...a giant red, orange, and gold bird, with fire that pours from his feathers, and ten flaming tail-feathers." At least, judging by what I've managed to manifest so far.

"A phoenix, then?" Jiraiya tilts his head slightly. "The Ten-Tailed Phoenix, Suzaku." I nod silently, confirming his theory as much as I can with the information I have. "I knew that there were nine tailed beasts, but...the tenth is usually thought to be nothing more than a myth by those who have heard any whispers of the old stories."

That sounds a little strange to me. "But, clearly he exists. So why is it that people don't know about him?"

"Well..." Jiraiya crouches down and gets eye-level with me. "That might have something to do with who he is. You say that he's nice to you, right?" I nod once more. "Then the chances are good that he doesn't have a legacy of destruction like the others do. People fear what they don't understand, and they fear what hurts them. If he never hurt anyone, then it wouldn't surprise me too much that he could go unnoticed."

"Oh..." Well, that certainly makes sense. But that doesn't change the fact that someone knows now. "But, now Itachi knows."

Jiraiya nods. "And that means that the Akatsuki are probably going to go after you for the same reason as Naruto. Not only that, but you're from the Shiryugu Clan, right?" I once again nod a yes to his question. "Are you from the main house?"

I clench my fists tightly and continue to nod. "My...my dad was the clan head."

His eyes widen slightly. "Ryouta." Then, his eyes narrow. "Then that means that you carry in your blood the possibility of many abilities unique to your ancestors. Which ones you develop will become obvious in time. But that also means that not only are you valuable for the demon inside you, but for you as yourself. Okay?"

"Yeah...I know..." Memories of that night a few weeks ago crop up. "Just before the final rounds of the exams...a man approached me on my way home. He talked about how it would be a few years before I grow into my power. And he implied that there wasn't much he wouldn't give to have me...but that because of the circumstnces, it would be too much for him to manage."

Alarm flashes in Jiraiya's eyes. "Tell me, what did this man look like?"

"Huh?" I don't really see how that's relevant right now. "Um...he was tall, as pale as snow, and he had long black hair. Oh, and his eyes were yellow, with purple make-up around them."

"Dammit." Jiraiya curses under his breath. "Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru?" I've heard that name before. "Who is he?"

Naruto grits his teeth and starts shaking. "That's the guy who attacked us in the Forest of Death! He kept trying to hurt Sasuke!"

"Sasuke...?" Then, another piece clicks into place. _Then...is it his power that I sensed? The malevolent power that keeps infecting Sasuke? Is that what he meant by both of us? Does he want Sasuke as well?_ My mind is reeling at this new information. "So...are you saying that Orochimaru and the Akatsuki are both going to want me?"

"Looks like it..." Jiraiya straightens up and looks down at me, smiling slightly as he ruffles my hair. "But don't worry. As long as you're with me, I'll keep both of you safe."

Naruto raises his fists into the air. "Well, then we're going to have to hurry up and get stronger, right?"

I look back into his bright blue eyes for a moment, then bounce my head up and down. "Yeah."

"Alright!" Naruto pumps his fists eagerly. "Let's find this Tsunade woman you're talking about, so she can fix up Sasuke, and we can get down to some serious training!"

* * *

Before training, however, it looks like we've got a whole lot more walking to do. I've been tracking the time by watching the movement of the sun, and I'm starting to get kind of bored with it. Though somehow, it doesn't hurt my eyes at all.

Naruto, on the other hand, seems to be experiencing another bout of his short attention span. And the old man notices it too. "What now?"

"This...beautiful woman you've got us out here scouting around for, is she this Tsunade that you mentioned?" I'd been wondering the same thing, myself, but I'm glad that Naruto brought it up instead. I'm a little afraid of the answer I'd get.

"Hey, not bad kid!" Jiraiya grins at Naruto. "You're pretty sharp, aren't ya? Why? What's on your mind then?"

"Well, you said that she was one of the Three Legendary Sannin, the same as you, right Pervy Sage?" I'm not entirely sure where he's going with this yet. Naruto's mind works in strange ways sometimes.

Jiraiya's grin fades quickly. "That's right. What's your point already?"

Naruto fidgets a little. "How...old is she?"

I nearly stop in my tracks out of shock. _How...old is she? If Jiraiya is an old pervert, then how old is this lady we're looking for? I thought he went for the younger girls..._

"Same age as me." He grins widely, as though being as old as him is supposed to be a good thing for a woman. Though, if it weren't for all of the focus on outward appearances, that probably wouldn't matter much.

Naruto, though, is undeterred. "So, what s this Tsunade lady like, anyway?"

"Ah, curious, are ya?" Jiraiya chuckles lowly. "What can I tell ya?" He strokes his chin thoughtfully while coming up with an answer. "Well, for one thing, she kind of unpleasant. Plus, I guess there's the fact that she's known far and wide as a die-hard gambler and all."

"Great!" Naruto nearly skips with joy. "This should be a piece of cake, then, if she's as famous as all that."

"Oh, she's famous alright." Jiraiya's grin gets so wide that he nearly looks like one of his toads. "You might even call her legendary."

"Legendary...?" This is starting to sound a little ominous to me. Though I'm guessing that it's mostly due to the fact that in his gleeful tone, there's a small hint of something sadistic.

"That's right!" He grins smugly. "The Legendary Sucker."

I sweatdrop uneasily. _Wait...what? The Legendary Sucker? But if she's a gambler...then..._ I smack my forehead with my palm. _Wait, are we seriously going after an old lady who sucks at gambling!? Why!?_ Then, Sasuke's face comes to mind. _Right...top-notch healer..._

Jiraiya chuckles at my reaction. "But, as legendary a sucker as she may be, I doubt she's going to be all that easy to find."

"Why? What makes you say that?" Naruto frowns slightly, shifting his backpack, as though wondering if he really packed enough for this trip.

"She's not the type to grow old gracefully...probably using some kind of jutsu to mask her appearance." He's sure thrown a wrench into the plan now. "She's actually fifty years old, but I'm sure she'll look more like she did in her twenties. And that's not all. The word on the wind I hear of late is that she's started transforming on the fly, going from her teens to her thirties and forties, all so she can cut out on any moneylenders she's in too deep with."

Naruto grimaces slightly. "Aw man, that's awful." A wry smile turns his lips up a little. "What a charmer..."

Jiraiya nods. "Yeah, well Tsunade's always loved gambling more than anything. It's too bad she never had any luck. Or skill for that matter." He stops in his tracks, eyes close, as though lost in his memories. "She was made a sucker so many times that the name just stuck with her. But...then she'd just borrow money and skip out on her debts. Ah...it brings me back, I tell ya."

"Hey! We don't have time for nostalgia!" Naruto stomps his feet impatiently. "Come on, do you have a plan for finding her or what!?"

"Not exactly..." Jiraiya opens his eyes and turns to us. "We might have a little work ahead of us, but I'm sure the three of us will come up with something."

I sigh quietly. "Good thing you brought me along, then, otherwise there would be no one to make any plans..." Not that I expect it to be easy, after all, the old man is the one who knows her best. So I'll have to get information from him before I can even start to make guesses as to where she might be. For now, all I can assume is that she's at a place with a gambling hall. After all, if you love something, you seek it out. "So, where's the nearest gambling hall? If we're looking for a gambler, then it stands to reason to keep checking gambling halls until we finally run into her."

Jiraiya nods approvingly. "See, now you're starting to get it."

Naruto groans with frustration. "So you don't even know how long this is gonna take?"

"Not a minute will be wasted!" Jiraiya assures us enthusiastically. "All of our time on the road will be devoted to the two of you."

"To...us?" Naruto looks over at me quizzically.

Jiraiya nods. "We've gotta get you kids stronger! Time to train!"

And, of course, as soon as the word train comes out of Jiraiya's mouth, Naruto's mood brightens immeasurably. But when he sets his backpack down and pulls out that green monstrosity, I back away quickly. _Oh...there is no way in hell that I'm looking at Naruto wearing that thing. It's bad enough that we've already got two jumpsuit-clad idiots, I don't want to scar my eyes with a third._

Luckily, Jiraiya somehow manages to dissuade Naruto from wearing the jumpsuit. But that hardly quiets Naruto down. Because no more than five minutes later, as we approach a canyon, Naruto is at it again. "Come on, Pervy Sage, what are we waiting for? Let's start training already!"

The old man snorts in amusement. "Alright, don't get ahead of yourself now. I have to train you two while we gather information on Tsunade. Otherwise it's not going to mean anything to you."

"Huh? Gather information?" Naruto seems to have either forgotten that we're searching for Tsunade, or he doesn't understand how a search mission is supposed to work.

Jiraiya leads us up to the canyon's edge and looks over the side. "In this town."

When leaning over the railing reveals is a small, but busy town. Even from here, I can see stalls all over the main streets. And something about it is just so much more lively than back in the Leaf. Maybe that's because back home, a lot of the residents are ninja, and with that comes an air of seriousness that these civilians just don't have.

But, then again, how would I know? It's only been in the last few months that I've actually had a chance to leave the village. And even then, I haven't made that many trips outside. Before this, the only time I'd actually been to another settlement was when we went to the Land of Waves. So this is really a brand new experience for me.

But I don't have long to admire the town from a distance, because Naruto's excitement and enthusiasm drags us right into the hustle and bustle of the town. He looks at each of the stalls with wide eyes. "Aw man, this is gonna be great! I've never seen anything like this before in my life!"

"Downtime is important, so have a little fun before we start your training. This festival will be going on for a while, we'll hunker down here until it' over. And then we'll start your training here too." Somehow I get the feeling that Jiraiya is going to use this as an opportunity to flirt with some pretty girls. But then again, who am I to complain? I've never experienced anything like this before.

"Alright!" Naruto jumps for joy, sliding off his backpack and rummaging around in it. As he reaches his hand further down, his grin widens. Then, he pulls out an emerald green frog wallet, stuffed to the brim with his savings.

Jiaraiya's eyes light up. "Oh baby! That is one fat frog you've got! You're filthy rich!" That's definitely an overstatement, but at this point, I don't really feel like correcting him.

Naruto grins proudly. "Yeah, I've got a pretty big stash. I've been saving up bit by bit from missions!" Naruto slips his backpack back on and turns to race off. "Catch ya later!"

"Stop right there, Naruto!" Jiraiya heads him off before he can get more than three feet. Then, he makes a grab for Naruto's wallet. "I'm going to hold onto your wallet for you." I narrow my eyes slightly. _You're going to what now?_

"Hey!" Naruto jumps up, trying to get his little green frog back. "What're you doing!?"

Jiraiya hands him three small bills. "Here, you can have this much to spend." And as Naruto starts to protest, Jiraiya frowns. "I don't wanna hear it! Honoring the three shinobi prohibitions is the duty of any upstanding ninja!"

"Three prohibitions?" Naruto is instantly distracted by this new concept. "What're ya talkin' about?"

"You're kidding! Don't you know? The three prohibitions are a trio of temptations that will bring a shinobi to his ruin!" And I think that Jiraiya is being overly dramatic, and that might lead to his ruin. "Those three prohibitions are alcohol, pretty women, and worst of all, money."

"Yeah...well none of those things really apply to me all that much, so...we're cool." And surprisingly, Naruto seems to be thinking a bit more logically than usual. "I'm underage, so I can't drink yet, and Ciara is younger than I am, so she's not going to be drinking. I don't really get the whole woman thing, Ciara's a girl in the first place, so I don't see how that would apply anyway. And I worked so hard to save all that money that I really don't feel like spending a ton of it." Then he turns to me. "Wait, what do you spend your money on anyway?"

I shrug. "Food, clothes, and medical supplies." It's the truth. There's not really much for me to spend money on anyway. My apartment is the right size for someone my age, and it's fully furnished, and long since decorated. So I really don't have much to spend money on anyway.

"You little fool!" Jiraiya turns back on Naruto. "Don't take money lightly! Once you start spending, you'll never stop! Money possesses a frightful power. This woman we're looking for, Tsunade, has ruined herself in the pursuit of it."

Naruto pouts and crosses his arms. "Pretty big talk coming from someone so addicted to the ladies."

Jiraiya rolls his eyes, then turns to me. "Well, where's your wallet?"

I bite my lip, looking down at the ground. "Well...actually, I left it at home. I only brought the bare minimum with me for food and stuff, and a small emergency fund in case I ran out of medical supplies. What I brought with me wouldn't even make for a healthy looking frog wallet."

Jiraiya scrutinizes me for a second. "Well, I suppose that's all well and good. Temptation is a powerful thing." He slips his own bag off his shoulder. "I'm going to go see if I can gather some information. Here, I want you to hold onto my bag for me. Remember, if you get lost somehow, you can always count on my tracker toad to sniff out my scent." He hands the bag off to Naruto. "You two need to stick together and make sure not to lose sight of each other."

"Hmph." Naruto slides the bag over his own and grabs my hand. "Bleh!" He sticks his tongue out at the old pervert and turns on heel, dragging me off into the crowd with him.

As we run through the crowd, Naruto's stomach decides to start protesting. I hold in a snort of laughter at the angry sound. "Looks like the smell of food has gotten to you."

"Yeah, no kidding!" Naruto blushes a little and laughs. "Looks like the first thing I need is something to eat!"

"Hm...then how about we follow our noses and get some food to share?" I rub my stomach a little and smile. "I have a feeling that if I don't put anything in it, then my stomach is going to start growling at me too."

"Okay!" Naruto sniffs at the air and his eyes wander over to one of the stalls. "Hey, can we get an order of takoyaki!?"

The middle-aged man at the stall looks at the two of us and smile cheerfully. "Sure thing!" He scoops up a handful of the octopus dumplings and rolls them into a container for us, drizzling them with sauce, and placing two wooden skewers on the side. But as the man gives Naruto back the change, it dawns on me that this is just the beginning of our little food race.

Three buttered potatoes, six chocolate covered bananas, a bag of apricot candy, and three orders of pancakes later, it seems like we've got enough food to feed an army. And Naruto walks up to yet another stall. "One large order of fried noodles, please."

"You got it!" The bespectacled old man tosses the frying noodles around. "That sure is a lot of food you've got there, son. You don't plan to eat all of it yourself, do ya?"

"Huh?" Naruto frowns. "Of course not!" He grins at me. "We're gonna have a picnic!"

"Just the two of you?" He looks at us curiously as he boxes up the noodles. "Well, alright then, here ya go." He hands Naruto the box of noodles, and it gets stuffed into the bag, along with all of the other food that Naruto insisted on picking up.

While Naruto totters around with the bag of food, I pick out a nice, grassy hill for us to set up on. "Over there!" I point just down the street to the large expanse of green. "That should be close enough for us to stay in case something happens, but far enough away from the market that we'll have a little peace and quiet."

"Awesome!" Naruto starts jogging off towards the hill, obviously resisting the urge to run, since that would spill all of the food in his arms.

The noises of the town dim behind us as we race out onto the grassy hill. There, Naruto puts down the bag of food and starts pulling out the various containers. I smirk wryly at the vast selection. "Well, at least we aren't going to be hungry for the rest of the day." I know full well that Naruto is a bottomless pit. Though I'm still trying to figure out the reason that his metabolism seems to be constantly in overdrive.

I sit myself down next to him and reach for the buttered potatoes and the dumplings. And the first thing I do is shove one of said buttered potatoes into Naruto's mouth, before taking a bit of my own. I know full well how excited he gets over food, so it's better to have him stuffing his face early, than listen to him yell about how much he loves one kind of food more than another. It takes only ten minutes for the two of us to polish off all of the food. And as expected, Naruto ends up eating about three quarters of it.

s Naruto burps and pats his stomach, I find my thoughts drifting back to the confrontation that I could never have seen coming. _What happened to Itachi...? I've never seen him act so cold. And why does everyone seem to think that he killed his clan? Why would he ever want to do something like that? Itachi is...too kind to want to do something like that... And Sasuke...he wants to kill Itachi for it?_ I groan and lie back on the grass, opening my eyes to look up at the sky. "Why is everything so messed up...?"

"Are you...thinking about that Itachi guy?" I'd totally forgotten for a minute that Naruto is sitting right next to me.

I glance over and up at him, and he looks rather worried, which is not a good look for him. "...yeah."

He frowns further and draws his knees up to his chest. "You knew that guy, right? The one from the Akatsuki?"

There's no point in hiding it now, not after everything that happened. "Yeah, I know him. But it's been years since I've seen him. The last time I heard his voice was when he came to visit me in the hospital." I reach for my tanto and draw them out of their sheaths. "He gave these to me before he disappeared."

Naruto peers at the inscriptions. "Itachi Uchiha...and Shisui Uchiha...?"

I nod, sliding the two back into their sheaths. "Shisui's older brother married my father's younger sister, which made him my uncle. Shisui was...about seven years older than me, I think. And sometimes, when I was little, he would come to visit me when he wasn't on a mission."

"Okay...?" Naruto raises an eyebrow. "So where does Sasuke's brother fit into this?"

I take a deep breath and sigh sadly. "Shisui and Itachi were best friends, so sometimes, Itachi would tag along with Shisui to visit me. And just like that...they became my favorite uncles. They would visit me every Thursday. Well...until my family was attacked..." Now that's delving into memories that I would rather forget. "Anyway, after the incident, the two of them would come to visit me in the hospital. Until, one day, Itachi came to visit me late at night. He left me his and Shisui's swords, and then disappeared, and I hadn't seen him since. Not until yesterday..." And it definitely didn't go the way I was hoping that a reunion would go.

"Oh..." Naruto fidgets a little. "And what about Sasuke? Does he know?"

It doesn't matter what Naruto meant by that, because the answer is the same. "No. He probably didn't know about the visits, or about Shisui's brother, or about any relation I have to him. Or at least...if he did, then he never thought to mention it." But since the chances are that he didn't have a clue, it means that when he wakes up, I'm looking at a full blown inquisition.

He hums a little. "Are you gonna tell him?"

A pair of accusing dark eyes come to mind. "I doubt that I'm going to have a choice in the end, so I suppose that I'll just have to answer whatever he asks..."

Naruto takes a deep breath, then leaps to his feet. "Alright, enough of that!" He grabs my hand and yanks me to my feet. "There's a festival going on, and we're gonna have fun, okay!" He seems intent on distracting me from the dark and twisted maze of my own thoughts.

Squeezing his hand, I smile in thanks at his efforts. "Okay." Then, I grin slightly. "Oh...and by the way, I've got my wallet at the bottom of my bag, if you wanna do a little shopping."

Naruto frowns again. "But didn't you say that you only brought what you needed for food and supplies?"

My grin widens dramatically. "Deception is a ninja's most important tool!"

His brain starts working to try and figure that out. And when it finally sinks in, his jaw drops. "You lied!"

"You say that like you're surprised." I fight back the urge to snicker.

His eyes bug out a little. "But you never lie!"

Well, it's not quite accurate, I just don't make a habit out of lying. "Well, not in front of you." I smirk at him and release his hand so that I can toss all of the garbage back into the bag. "Now, come on. Let's toss this and go have some fun!"

* * *

After dragging me through enough games to burn through most of the money that Jiraiya let Naruto spend, as well as hitting a few stalls to pick up a few souvenirs for our friends back home, the two of us have finally run out of most of our steam. Most, but not all. Because even after racing around a festival for half a day, I'm sure that Naruto would find some way to tap into an extra reserve of secret stamina.

We walk away from yet another stall, grilled squid on sticks in hand. And Naruto looks around impatiently. "Good grief, where did he get off to?"

Suddenly, a boisterous laugh emanates from one of the nearby buildings, and it sounds suspiciously like Jiraiya. Naruto and I share a glance, before approaching the establishment and taking a peak inside. Lo and behold, Jiraiya is there with a girl on each arm. And right in front of him is Naruto's wallet, completely empty.

"Hahaha, what can I say!? I love the ladies!" Jiraiya raises a mug to his lips, probably filled to the brim with alcohol. Then, he notices the two of us. "Oh, hey kids, had your fill of the festival already, huh?"

Naruto deadpans, and that's when he notices his poor empty wallet sitting on the table. He crouches down in front of it and looks like he's going to hurl. Then, he goes completely ballistic. "I need a refresher!" He gets right up in Jiraiya's face. "What were those prohibitions again!? What's the matter with you!? You're breaking all three in one go ya dirty-"

As the girls flee, I pick Naruto's wallet up off the table and sigh. _And that's why I don't let anyone else touch my wallet..._ And for a minute, while Jiraiya and Naruto are having their little spat, I consider the idea of applying poison to my wallet so that anyone else who touches it will learn never to try it again. But I discard the idea, since I would just end up getting the poison on other people myself.

That's about when everything goes downhill. The two grilled squid in Naruto's hands go flying, and sail right into some rich guy's jacket. Ad his bodyguard is far from impressed. "Watch it! Look what ya did, ya little punk!" Naruto finally stops trying to bash Jiraiya's skull in long enough to turn around and see his unfortunate handiwork. There's a big brown stain right on the front of the guy's expensive-looking coat. "You stained the boss' brand new designer suit, ya little street rat! You're payin' for that, a hundred thousand!"

"What!?" Naruto's eyes bug out. "You're telling me that suit cost a hundred thousand!?"

Jiraiya sobers up in an instant. "That seems a little bit of a stretch, fellas. You expect us to believe that monkey suit is worth a hundred thousand?"

"You lookin' for trouble, old man?" The rich guy finally has the bright idea to speak up. "You'll shut yer yap if ya know what's good for ya."

Then bodyguard grins smugly. "The boss used to be a chunin from the Hidden Stone Village. He's the legendary Dark Ninja, feared across the land."

I glare at the two of them. "Oh, really?" Something about that seems rather wrong to me. Not only does this guy not look like a ninja, but this idiot must think we're stupid or something, to be afraid of a single chunin. Not only that, but even though we're at peace now, it seems a little odd for someone to be here from the Land of Earth. And unless he's got a particularly impressive clan name, it's doubtful that a chunin could make the kind of money he's claiming that his suit cost.

But instead of a reaction similar to my skepticism, Jiraiya just crosses his arms and grins. "Ah this I gotta hear. The legendary what now?"

"You're askin' for it, pal! Just keep pushin'!" His temper is starting to crack. And no ninja worth their salt would act like this, not at his age and alleged level of experience. He acts more like a thug than a ninja. Everything about this guy smells fishy. And I know for sure that it's not the squid.

Finally, Jiraiya gets to his feet, and he's got a smile on his face. "Naruto, this is perfect timing. I have a new jutsu I wanna show you." Chakra starts swirling around, gathering itself in the palm of his hand. "Now, pay attention." The chakra forms a ball in his hand. And when the guy charges at the old man, he gets that swirling ball of chakra right to the gut. It slams into his stomach, and with one push, Jiraiya sends him flying right out of the building and into a balloon stall across the street.

I walk out and survey the damage. "Well...looks like that suit is wrecked." There's a huge hole in it, right where that attack landed. Frankly, the lingering stain is the least of this suit's problems.

Jiraiya comes strolling out of the building behind me. "And I was holding back...you guys were hardly worth the trouble."

The rich idiot groans and opens his eyes, his sight falling on Jiraiya. "Wait...you're...the legendary..."

But Jiraiya ignores him and turns to the owner of the balloon stall. "Sorry about that, I guess we kinda messed up your stand."

"H-here...this s-should c-cover it." The idiot holds up his wallet, sheer terror on his face.

I turn my gaze to Jiraya, who takes the wallet and extracts a wad of bills. "Ah, thanks a lot." He hands them to the shopkeeper. "Now, then, my good man. I'd like to buy every balloon you've got, including water balloons. How's that sound?"

The man, bewildered by the request, just stares up at Jiraiya. "Fine by me, I guess."

The two of them make the transaction and Jiraiya picks up a package filled with all of the ruined stand's balloons. "Naruto, Ciara!" He calls for our attention. "Let's get going. Time for you two to train."

I glance at the package in his hands suspiciously. _Okay...what exactly is going on here, and what does training have to do with a bunch of balloons?_ My eyes drift back towards the downed rich fool. _And what was that jutsu he used? I've never seen anything like it before... What exactly are we getting into here?_

Jiraiya starts to walk away, leaving the staring crowd behind. Naruto and I glance at each other, shrug, and follow along behind the old pervert. _Well, I guess we're about to find out._


	53. A New Jutsu and A New Element

**So, just to let you all know, the past few days have been a little on the insane side. It's National Novel Writing Month, and I've spent the last few days getting a head start on the word count so that I can free up time later and still make it to my goal. So far, I've clocked in at just over twenty-five thousand words. My goal by the end of the month is ninety thousand words. By the time I get my word count there, I should have written the entire novel. I'm posting this right before me and the other writers in my area are having our get-together.**

 **And just a heads up, I've also got a few major assignments due at the end of the month, so those are going to take up a fair bit of time too. So on the whole, my updates are going to be slowed down a bit until I deal with that.**

 **Or, I could just procrastinate and write. That works too.**

* * *

Jiraiya drags us out to a cliff overlooking the city after filling up a whole bag of water balloons. And it makes me wonder exactly what kind of game he's playing. I was under the impression that there was going to be some training, not a water balloon fight.

Then again, I suppose that one could make the argument that water balloons could be good for dodging exercises. Not that me and Naruto need to do that kind of training. We're both pretty good at getting out of the way if there's a lethal attack coming at us. That, or Naruto will just stand there and take it, and somehow miraculously survive. But I get the feeling that we're not going through that again, because Jiraiya's already pushed him over the edge of a bottomless cliff. At this point, there's not much worse than that.

Naruto, on the other hand, is thinking solely with his one track mind. "Alright! It's finally time to get down to business!"

"Jiraiya rummages around in the bag, taking out two water balloons. Then, he tosses one to Naruto. "Here, have a water balloon."

Huh?" Naruto shakes the balloon around. "What in the heck is this for?"

"Just think about it." Jiraiya gazes down at Naruto like he's about to teach a class. "You saw the jutsu I performed, right?" Naruto nods in response. "And how would you describe it?"

Naruto frowns a bit. "Hm…you sent that guy spinning like a pinwheel."

Jiraiya cringes at the answer, then turns to me. "What about you? What did you think of the technique I used?"

I'm not entirely sure what he wants me to say, since it sounds to me like Naruto somehow gave the wrong answer. "Well…it looked to me like you just pulled a bunch of chakra in your hand, swirled it around like a mini tornado, and smacked the guy in the stomach with it, sending him flying, like Naruto said, kind of like the way a pinwheel spins."

Jiraiya nods slightly. "Tell me, what kind of ninjutsu do you like to use?"

It's a bit of an odd question, but I suppose that if he's going to try and teach me something later, then he'll probably need to know anyway. "Wind and fire techniques mostly, but I'd really like to start working on lightning soon."

Jiraiya's eyes narrow. "And I assume that after that, you're planning on moving on to water and earth ninjustu?" That elicits a nod from me. "I see. That explains your description though. Ninjutsu that uses wind as a base often deals with swirling chakra, so it's no surprise that you would have noticed that much." He quickly turns back to Naruto. "So yeah, spinning and swirling. Watch closely." He raises up the water balloon in his hand and the strangest thing occurs.

The surface of the balloon stars to grow rough, and little spikes poke outward, as though the water is trying to escape its confines. He must be spinning the chakra quite wildly in there. Then, the spikes grow larger and larger, until finally, the balloon pops under the strain of the swirling water.

Naruto gasps, and Jiraiya grows just a little smug. "With the tree-climbing exercise, you learned to gather and maintain chakra. With the water walking exercise, you learned to release a steady amount of it. Both of these, you've mastered, correct?" Jiraiya gets a nod in response. "With the water balloon exercise, you'll learn to create a stream of chakra, spinning and swirling it, as the two of you have so aptly put it."

Naruto frowns at the thought. "I'm supposed to create a stream of chakra?"

"Don't worry, I'll go into more detail on how the jutsu works once you've gotten a handle on the basics. First, gather chakra in your hand using the tree-climbing technique, then, release a steady stream of it, using the walk on water technique. And finally, use the chakra to push and churn the water inside of the balloon." All of this sounds great in theory, but I've got a feeling that it's actually a lot more difficult, if not complicated, than he describes.

Naruto, predictably, is undeterred. "Wait, I get it! So then what you're aiming for it to spin the water inside the balloon until it eventually pops!

Jiraiya grins encouragingly. "Atta'boy! You're starting to catch on quicker! Okay, we'll train until the sun goes down!"

"Well…this is all well and good, but if Naruto is doing that, then what am I working on?"

Jiraiya walks over, Naruto already long since distracted by his new assignment. "Well, from what I know of your late grandfather, if you've got the same talents that he did, then that means that you're probably aiming to learn the other three basics elements, right?"

I nod quickly. "Dad could do it too. He used to practice out on the lake when I was little, and I would sneak out to go watch him." Then, my enthusiasm level drops suddenly and it feels like my insides have frozen. "But…he never got to teach me…"

"I see…" Jiraiya pats me on the head softly. "Well, then how about I give it a go? I don't know much firsthand about using lightning, but I think I might be able to give you a few pointers on your fire techniques. And if you want to learn earth or water techniques, I might be able to get you started on the basics."

I cringe at the thought of the effort that is going to have to go into learning such solid elements. Like wind, fire can be flighty and free, and that worked well with what I already knew when I was making the effort to learn it. I've been wanting to learn lightning next for the same reason. It's the tangible elements like water and earth that are going to be difficult for me to grasp.

But, there's no time like the present to suck it up and get to work on something new. "Alright, if you can teach me how to mix my chakra properly for water style jutsu, then that is what I'd rather work on."

A satisfied smirk crosses the old man's face. "I figured that you'd pick that one. It requires less physical chakra than earth jutsu, though it takes more than either wind or fire. And honestly, physical chakra is definitely something you're lacking in."

I grit my teeth. "Yeah…I know." I know that he's not trying to rub it in my face, but it still irks me anyway. I kno full well that my physical chakra is lacking. And of course, I'm going to blame the fact that I'm still tony and haven't hit puberty yet. And I'm not expecting to for another year or two.

Jiraiya chuckles and puts his hands on my shoulders. "Alright, then let's get you started. I'm guessing that you already know how to consciously fuse your chakra into an element, right?"

I nod. "Like turning it into fire, or turning it into the kinetic energy of wind."

"Exactly." Jiraiya backs off, then leans over the bag and snatches a water balloon from it, tossing it to me. "For working with water, it's not enough to just move the element with your chakra. You have to let your chakra fuse with the water, just like how you convert it into fire, or fuse it with the air to produce wind. Only this time, you're working with something that you can touch."

I catch the watter balloon and gently toss it from hand to hand, feeling the water move inside the balloon. "Infuse it, huh?" I flash back to the preliminaries for a second, remember what Ino did with her hair, running her chakra through it to use it as a trap. _Infuse my chakra into the water…_ I think back again to the preliminaries, and Gaara's sand comes to mind as well. _Well…if they could do it…then I can too!_

Excited by the abilities that our old competitors displayed, I clutch the water balloon in my hand and sit down, laying both hands in my lap. _Okay, relax and focus…the water is your friend. You need to feel the element before you can control it._

Though, of course, it would help if I knew exactly what feeling I'm supposed to be trying to get. With wind, it's a grinding, slicing, high pressure feeling. For fire, it's a warm, pulsing, compressed feeling, before letting that feeling loose, like uncorking a bottle and releasing the pressure. For water…well, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's supposed to have something to do with the flow of it…

"Look, the water's spinning!" Naruto cries out happily, quickly distracting me from my own assignment. "It's gonna be even easier than I thought to get this balloon to burst!"

I look up to see Jiraiya nod his head. "Good, let me know when wither of you have made some progress." He heads over towards a nearby tree. "Meanwhile, I'll just get comfortable. It's time for a little break." He pulls a large bottle from inside his clothes, though where he stashed the thing, I'm still not clear on.

Naruto, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to be quiet, more than a little affronted by the lack of attention that Jiraiya is paying to him. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

The old man shrugs. "I might as well catch a little shut-eye while I'm waiting. This stuff helps me sleep." Knowing that he can drink himself to sleep does not make me feel any better about this whole thing. I know full well that there are much better ways to fall asleep.

Even if they don't always work.

Unable to reason with Jiraiya on the matter, Naruto falls back to a different strategy, a half smirk, half grin plastering itself on his face. "Hmph, don't get too comfortable, this won;t take long."

Jiraiya smiles in response. "Yeah, yeah, okay, you just let me know when you've figured it out." Then he leans over and glances around Naruto at me. "And I trust that you'll know when you've got actual results?"

Gritting my teeth, I nod slightly. "I've done plenty of training in elemental ninjutsu before…when I figure this out, you'll know."

"Good." His eyes flick back to Naruto. "Now, you should get started, otherwise we're gonna be here all day."

"Hmph! Just you wait and see!" Naruto turns away from him, focusing once more on the water balloon in his hands. "I'll have this thing down before you even close your eyes, ya lazy old buzzard!"

With all of the yelling seemingly over and done with, I turn back to my own project and frown slightly. I really would have preferred to get lightning out of the way before tackling water. To my eyes, it seems like a natural stepping stone, slowly making my way through the elements from the least tangible to the most. Doing it this way is skewing that order, and I'm pretty sure that I'm woefully unprepared for dealing with water style.

Nevertheless, this has to be done sooner or later, and since the old man over there doesn't use lighting, I can either sit here and work on this project, or I can wait until we head back to the village and convince either Akito or Kakashi to teach me. And though Kakashi might not be my teacher, I'm sure that I could put together a decent argument in my favor.

As the water balloon remains completely still, I frown slightly. _Not good, I'm too distracted… I shake my head slightly and take a deep breath. Okay, you know the drill. Stop thinking about the other elements that you need to learn, and focus on the one in front of you. He who chases two rabbits will catch neither. Dividing your attention will only makes things worse._

Still, as the minutes tick by, staring to turn into hours, my patience wears thin. It's probably not a good idea to be forcing patience, since it has a habit of backfiring in the form of a volatile temper, but water just seem like the kind of element that you have to be patient with. That, of course, doesn't change the fact that I feel like throwing this damn balloon at Jiraiya's head so that I can wake him up and demand that he explain to me exactly how I'm supposed to connect with water in the first place.

Closer to Jiraiya, it looks like Naruto isn't having much luck either. And far from the assertion that he would have the technique down before Jiraiya could close his eyes, Naruto is still struggling, while Jiraiya snores away, three bottles lying by his feet. _Jeez…where does he keep it all? I didn't even see him take out those other two bottles…_

"Ugh, dammit!" Naruto plops himself down on the ground, staring at the balloon in his hands that just refuses to pop. "Why won't this balloon pop!?"

I glance over at him, scrutinizing the balloon. "Maybe you just aren't spinning your chakra fast enough. That technique that he used looked like the chakra was spinning pretty fast."

Naruto nods, frowning a little. Then, his eyes drop to the balloon in my hands. "What about you? Any progress?"

Sighing, I put the balloon on the ground and place my chin on my hands, staring at the little round monstrosity. "No. It feels like something is blocking me."

Naruto's eyes narrow. "Blocking you?" He swallows a little nervously. "Could it be…him?"

"Huh?" At first, I have no idea what he could be referring to. Then, it clicks. "Whoa, no! No way!" The very idea is preposterous. "Suzaku would never prevent me from learning something like this, especially if I'm learning it without him."

"Yeah, but…" Naruto's frown deepens. "You can use wind and fire, right?" I nod in response. "Then…maybe he let you learn those two because they're what he can use too…?" His statement sounds a lot more like a question, and that's why I'm willing to let most of his suspicion slide. He just doesn't understand the bond I'm growing with the demon.

"Naruto…" I try to think of a way to say this tactfully. "In your case…you might have a malicious and unwilling passenger along for the ride, but it's not the same for me." I place my hand delicately on my stomach. "He only wants to help me. Even if that means holding back information at times. He doesn't want me to jump into anything that I can't pull myself out of. If the training were really risking to do that, he would have said something by now to stop me from doing it. Talking to me seems to be his first course of action."

At that, Naruto's expression softens. "Okay…as long as he's not tryin' to stop you from working hard."

"Yeah…" Though, now that I think on it, Naruto has unwittingly provided me with some advice. Or perhaps a suggestion would be a better way to put it. And considering how frustrated I am, it might be worth trying out a different approach.

I calm myself and gather up my energy, sitting myself down in a position that should be easier to maintain over a long period of time, since I have no idea just how long this is going to take. _Now…dive into the many layers of your own consciousness…_

Of course, such a thing is much easier said than done. You'd think that it would be easier to look inside your own mind, but that's definitely not the case. The amount of time that it takes me just to block out all sounds and sensations from the physical world is frustrating, even though I know that getting frustrated is only going to make this take longer.

I breathe in, then out, in, then out, repeating the cycle over and over, trying to find a sense of inner peace. That's something that is rather hard to come by these days, what with the nightmares, the memories, and the sheer stress of worrying over everyone. But for now, I wipe my mind of all outside concerns, focusing solely on the warmth in my stomach. Slowly, like sinking through honey, the sensations around me change, dimming to the point of nonexistence.

Then, the heavy honey feeling lessens, and a breeze touches my face. Surprised, I open my eyes. But what I see around me is far from the scenery around that town. For one, Naruto and the old pervert are nowhere to be seen. And for another, I'm sitting in the middle of a grassy field, a forest stretching out behind me, and a lake off in the distance, crowned by the peak of a tall mountain.

It's a place that I've never seen before, and yet, looks strangely familiar. I stand, making my way towards the lake, as my first thoughts are to wander over in that direction. I'm not entirely certain what is drawing me towards the lake, but whatever it is, it's a good thing. I feel calmer, happier as I approach the sparkling blue waters.

Hovering at the edge of the lake, I peer into the blue water and spot a big shadow in its depths, a shadow that does not look like the typical lake bottom. Hesitantly, I let a foot hover over the surface of the water, placing it down lightly, and pressing a little of my weight on it. It holds. With the safety of the water's surface assured, I take a few steps towards the middle of the lake, testing the integrity of the surface further. Satisfied, I start walking towards the large shadow, compelled to discover exactly what it is.

As though sensing my thoughts, the shadow in the water's depths moves, writhing under the surface of the water. The surface starts to churn, like the ocean during a storm. I refuse to panic as the shadow grows larger, and the purple of it brightens into a startling scarlet.

The surface of the water breaks, washing me back several feet, and revealing a mountain of red, orange, and gold feathers. Wise and kind eyes look down at me, making me think of the sun, a roaring fire, and a volcano, all wrapped into one. The giant form now floats on the water, fully exposed for me to see. And what I see is truly magnificent.

He's huge, a gigantic bird, easily able to simply sit down and crush an entire neighborhood. Not that he looks like he has the inclination to do so. No, from the look of him, he is simply content with watching me. And considering what my goal was in descending into my own mind, this is exactly what I was hoping I would find.

I take a few steps towards him, holding up my had so that I can touch his feathers. "Suzaku…"

He shakes a little, and there's a rumbling sound coming from him. Laughter. "And hello to you, chick. I was wondering when you would finally come to visit me."

Suddenly, I feel rather guilty. "You were waiting for me?"

More laughter. "Not exactly, chick." He sweeps his wings across the surface of the lake, rippling the water as he scoops me up. "I knew that one day, you would have the focus required to come here, to descend into your own mind and seek me out. So do not feel guilty. I have spent far longer with far less company than this before."

That only makes me feel a little less guilty as I look up at the gigantic bird, snuggling into the soft feathers. "So…uh…" Great, now I feel like asking him for help would just be imposing on him.

Suzaku chuckles once more, his eyes twinkling at me. "I believe that you came here seeking advice. Go ahead and ask me your questions, do not be afraid."

His soft, melodic voice reassures me, so I lie back on his wing and stare straight up into his eyes. "Well, you probably know that I've been doing some training today. And I was having some difficulties with learning a new type of jutsu…"

Suzaku tilts his head slightly. "That's unusual…you've never had much trouble before."

He's right on that count. "I know, but before, it was wind and fire. And I was wondering…is it because of you that I picked them up so quickly?" I doubt it, but I might as well put that question to rest here and now. Hopefully, without offending the demon currently cradling me like a small child.

Thankfully, he doesn't look offended at all. "In the stages f learning them, no. However, recently, I believe that our intertwining energies have increased those abilities beyond what they were before. As well as granting you a few new ones."

New ones…? Then, memories of the flaming feathers comes to mind. "Ah, I see…" He nods silently. So, I venture into slightly different territory. "Anyway…so right now, I'm working on learning a new element, but I've been sitting around for hours without getting anywhere."

"I see…" Smoldering fire-like eyes flicker slightly. "And you would ask me for advice on the matter?"

"Yeah…well…" I recoil slightly as a hint of shame shoots through me. "I'm…trying to learn water style right now. But I know that you're attuned to wind and fire, so…if you can't help me, that's okay."

"Hm…water, already? I would have thought that you would start lightning next." His observation makes my eye twitch slightly.

Calming myself once more, refusing to give in to my frustration, I clench my fists. "Well, that's what I wanted to do, but the one I'm training with doesn't use lightning style. So, to have something to do while Naruto trains another technique, I'm trying to pick up water style instead."

Suzaku nods his enormous head, it must be the size of the Hokage tower, at least. "Very well, I can see what it is that you want." He tilts his wing slightly, letting me back down onto the water's surface. "Now listen carefully…" He draws himself up to his full height, looking even more impressive than before. "While I do not use water techniques, myself, I have observed much in humans over the centuries. What you are looking for is the flow, the rush, the trickle of water. It is something that fills you up, lifts you up, and pushes you down at the same time. If you think of those principles and apply them to the technique you call the River of Flames, then you may see what I speak of."

That's probably the most detailed, if not the clearest answer I've gotten about this whole thing. And with it, I might finally be able to make some headway with this new style. I bow slightly to the giant bird. "Thank you for your help."

He chuckles one last time. "Yes…now run along, chick, you have work to do."

I smile up at him as he makes to shoo me off, a light feeling engulfing me. "I'll come back to visit again soon, okay!?"

If he could smile with that bird beak of his, he probably would e smiling right now. As it is, I can see the smile in his eyes as everything fades out of existence, turning dark as I feel my eyes close once more. I pass through the heavy feeling of honey, and ambient sounds begin to make themselves known again. Including the sound of Naruto's grunting.

My eyes open, revealing that the sky is starting to turn orange. Its sunset. _Wow…I must have been in there longer than I thought…_ While I don't mind it right now, I'll have to work on speeding up my time in there so that I can go in and have a conversation with Suzaku, without wasting away an hour.

I look over at Naruto, who is breathing hard and bent right over. And not a second later, does his outburst begin. "This is crazy! What do I have to do!?"

"Huh!?" Jiraiya wakes with a start, looking around, rather bleary-eyed. "Well, did you do it?"

Naruto stands up straight, shock obvious on his face. "Uh…well…" He looks back, rather abashedly. "Not quite, but I'm really close, almost there!" And the reason that I know that's not true is because he's using his flustered lying voice, meant not just to convince others, but to convince himself as well.

Jiraiya looks over at me and notices the water balloon still in my lap. "No luck for you either?"

I tilt my head slightly. "Well…not so far. But I think I might have just figured out something that could work."

Naruto looks rather confused. "Is that why you were sitting there for like an hour?"

"Mm-hm." I nod happily. "I just needed to get a little advice, that's all."

Naruto growls in frustration, turning on the old pervert. "Come on, tell me! How do I get it to burst!?"

Jiraiya ignores him for a second, going for one of his sake bottles, only to find that it's been emptied, and he looks down in disappointment. "Like I've said before, you won't know how it's done until after you've done it." But at seeing the disappointed look on Naruto's face, he laughs. "However…in your case, even though ideally, you're supposed to master this jutsu by yourself through trial and error, maybe I'll give you a small hint to point you in the right direction." He points down at Naruto's hand. "Alright now, get the water in the balloon spinning again."

"Huh?" Naruto looks rather perplexed. "Okay…" Holding up the balloon, he focuses hard on it, making it wobble back and forth slightly.

Jiraiya observes him carefully. "…to the right or the left? Which direction are you making the water rotate?"

"Huh?" Naruto's bemused face only grows more surprised. "Oh, uh…to the left, I guess."

Jiraiya nods, then waves Naruto over. Once Naruto is there, he waves me over as well. I'm not entirely sure why he wants me over there, but I suppose that I should just humor him at this point. I hop to my feet and walk over, not entirely sure what the point is, but trusting that he's got a good reason for this.

I only grow more confused when he puts his hand on Naruto's head, alternately ruffling and flattening his hair. Then he smirks. "I thought as much."

Naruto looks up, frowning. "Huh? You thought what?"

Jiraiya smile slightly. "The problem is you're actually a right rotation type. You've got your chakra working against itself. A good way to build up chakra in the body is to spin it into a tight spiral, like a spring. Whether the chakra spins to the left or the right depends on the individual. Some people are left rotation type, some are right. But if you're spinning the water in the balloon in the opposite direction of your natural rotation type, your chakra's just counteracting itself. No wonder you're having trouble."

I scrunch my eyebrows together, thinking hard. _Twisting it in the body, huh…? I wonder if I do that already?_ It would certainly explain why I have no trouble twisting it out at weird angle when I use my wind style techniques.

But at seeing only more confusion on Naruto's face, he removes his hand from Naruto's head and places it on mine, messing around with my hair a little. "Take a look at this, Naruto. You see? Which direction does her hair swirl in?"

Uh…" Naruto's face disappears as he peers at the top of my head. "To…the left? But what does that have to do with anything?"

Jiraiya finally releases my head and goes into teach mode while I smooth down my hair. "You see, an easy way to figure out what rotation type you are is to look at the pattern of hair growth. It's which way your hair swirls as it grows. So, now we know that she's a left rotation type." He turns to me and grins. "Now, without thinking about it, why don't you make the first movements of a wind style jutsu that you use."

I blink, not really getting the point, but I pull my left arm in towards my body, twisting myself at the knees, shoulders, and hips. "Like this?"

Jiraiya nods approvingly. "Exactly. You turn your body so that you can spin counter-clockwise, to the left. You instinctively work with your body's natural rhythms to achieve the desired result. That's good."

The praise makes me feel a little better about my relative lack of progress today. But, with the sun setting, it looks like training is going to have to resume in the morning, or we're going to be out here in the dark. Though, knowing Naruto, that probably wouldn't bother him one bit.

Jiraiya turns back to Naruto, grinning. And your hair grows in the opposite direction, which means that you have to spin your chakra opposite to hers."

"Huh…" Naruto picks at his hair. "If I ever brushed my hair, I mighta known that. I only ever brush Ciara's hair, and that's when she's in a bad mood."

The old perv snorts quietly. "You get it now? It might help if you set the water in the balloon rotating to the right."

Naruto ruffles up his hair a little more. "Man… I never even knew my hair rotated, forget about which way…"

"I think that this'll be the perfect jutsu for you Naruto. All it requires is chakra, no complicated hand signs to be mastered. With a little effort, even a slow learner can get this one." Jiraiya leans down to poke Naruto in the chin, then grins over at me. "You, on the other hand, seem to have no trouble with hand signs, which means that the more complicated jutsu are something that you can master easily, once you develop your affinities for them."

Naruto twitches, and goes from zero to a hundred in half a second. "Hey! Who are you callin' a slow learner!? I can master the complicated stuff, just like she can! Are you forgetting who I am!? I'm the guy who's gonna be Hokage someday! I betcha in three days, I'll have this whole thing nailed! You won't be smiling then!"

I suppose that I should have seen this coming a mile away. Whenever someone decides to put him down or cast doubt on his abilities, he gets all fired up just to prove them wrong. It's what he did with the shadow clones, of course.

Jiraiya raises an eyebrow. "Three days? This jutsu was handed down to us by none other than the Fourth Hokage." Jiraiya's words startle Naruto slightly. "Yes, and it took the Fourth Hokage three whole years to perfect it. In terms of difficulty, this is the second hardest jutsu of all. It's one of the highest rank ninjutsu. To learn this move requires mastering three different phases of training. The water balloon burst is only the first." Suddenly, Naruto's chances aren't looking so good to me.

Naruto stares down at the water balloon in his hands, his expression pensive. Jiraiya is talking about the guy whose face, Naruto has graffitied on time and time again. Someone that he both hates and looks up to. Someone that he wants to surpass no matter what. And it almost looks like Jiraiya has placed the beginning of such an opportunity right into Naruto's lap.

"And you, who haven't even finished the first phase yet, you're going to master it in three days, huh?" Jiraiya scoffs lightly. "Yeah right, knock yourself out, kid. Meanwhile…" Jiraiya turns away from Naruto and starts walking. "If it's all the same to you, I'm heading back to town. I've been neglecting my research." He stops briefly, looking back at the two of us. "It's gettin' late, you two comin'?"

I nod, gathering up my water balloon and trailing after Jiraiya, only to stop when Naruto doesn't move an inch. "Naruto? What's wrong? It's time to head back."

He stares at the balloon, then shakes his head. "Nah, you go on ahead. I'm gonna train some more.

Jiraiya chuckles at the sight. "Well, see ya later then, don't overdo it."

I follow Jiraiya back towards the town, my eyes often finding their way back to Naruto, before he disappears from sight, the trees and hills blocking my view of my best friend. I clutch my balloon tightly, but not so tightly that it breaks. _Good luck, Naruto…_ Because I know that he's gonna need it.


	54. A Mountain of Nervous Breakdowns

**Sorry that it's taken so long to update. I've been sick for a while, and it's been impossible to do much more than lie in bed and sleep thanks to a high fever and some wicked coughing and nausea that honestly made me feel like I was going to die. Thankfully, I'm alive and well (and definitely not an edo tensei zombie). Being sick for a whole week was definitely NOT fun.**

 **I've also tried to make this chapter kind of cute and fluffy. And even a little dark at one point. I hope that you appreciate my efforts.**

 **Now, on with the show.**

* * *

Have I mentioned that I'm not a morning person? Obviously not to Naruto. Either that, or he's forgotten, because he's up with the sun, yawning loudly and shuffling around, not caring at all that I'm still trying to sleep. You would think that since he knows how badly I sleep some nights, that he would let me keep sleeping.

Not a chance in hell. I might as well hope for pigs to fly or the moon to turn blue. Because with a best friend who likes to be an early riser, there's no way that I'm going to get as much sleep as I'd like.

Moments later, there's a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently. "Ciara come on…it's time to get up." _Ugh…not now…_

I move my arm just enough to pick up my pillow and slam it into his face. "I'm sleeping." _Go away…_

Despite the pillow to the face, he persists. "Come on…we need to train."

"No…you need to train, and I need to sleep." I'm about five seconds from punching him in the stomach, that or screaming at him at the top of my lungs.

"Please come with me! I really need your help!" I should have seen this coming. When insisting doesn't work, Naruto will resort to what I'm sure are the most adorable puppy eyes in the world. And not only that but he's got the kicked puppy voice down as well.

"Fine…" I grumble irritably as I push myself into a sitting position, blinking bemusedly as I slowly come fully awake. And sitting there, his big blue eyes wide and adorable is Naruto. _Damn it…if this keeps up, he's going to destroy my immunity to those damn eyes of his._

Sighing heavily, I strip out of my pajamas and dress myself for the day, Naruto looking away pointedly as I do so. This is not the first time I've changed in front of him, and I'm certain that it won't be the last. Although it's kind of funny to see him avoiding looking at me with such determination. It almost makes me feel like I'm not the scrawniest and least attractive twelve year old in our year.

As I pull on my sleeves, straightening them out, I hum absentmindedly. "So, exactly what are you hoping that I'll help you with?" Because honestly, I have no idea what he's expecting me to do to help him out. I've never seen a jutsu that's anything like what he's trying to pull off, so I really don't know how much help I'd be.

That lights up Naruto's face in an instant. "Well, I was hoping that you would help me figure out this whole water balloon thing!" That's about what I'd figured.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Isn't this jutsu only supposed to be for you? Why would you want to share that with me just to figure it out."

He pouts a little. "Well…I don't mind if you learn it too. I mean, that way, we can train together, right!?" _Man, he's more than just eager…he's borderline desperate._

Well, apart from the fact that he clearly doesn't understand that part of the value in a technique is in the limited number of people able to perform it, I suppose that there are no real points that I can raise against helping him out. Of course, with the way that Naruto trains, I doubt that I'm going to be making much headway on learning how to work with water today. Not unless I can manage to do some serious multitasking.

Nevertheless, I follow Naruto out of the hotel room and out of the small town. It's probably best that we're conducting this training outside of the inhabited areas, since it would be unfortunate if we had a little…accident. And knowing how clumsy Naruto can be at times, as well as the serious lack of information that Jiraiya's left us with. Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if maybe that old pervert is trying to get us to kill ourselves by accident. Because considering what that technique did in a controlled environment, I think that I'm justified in being a little worried over what could happen if it gets out of control.

 _Naruto so owes me peaches when we get back to the village…_

Once we're back at our makeshift training location, with Jiraiya nowhere in sight, Naruto carves a second line into the tree, signifying that this is the second day that he'll be working on this new jutsu. He grits his teeth as he looks at the mark. "I don't have three years to waste on this jutsu."

My eyes flick from the marks to him, and I sigh. "Well, you're right about that. But that means that you're just going to have to train harder to make up for it."

He glances t me, then smiles, pumping his fists into the air. "Alright, then let's do this! I'm going to get this jutsu down today!"

I sweatdrop just a little bit. "Uh…I think that you're jumping the gun a little bit. Even I can't master a jutsu in a single day, and I'm pretty sure that I know more jutsu than you do."

"Oh yeah!?" He reaches into the bag of water balloons that he insisted on hauling all the way here with us. "Well, I'll show you! Now sit back and watch!" He grabs one of the balloons from the bag and places It squarely in the palm of his right hand.

Settling myself down with a balloon of my own, and renewing my efforts to try and connect with this new element, I watch Naruto as he pours his chakra into his own balloon, trying to spin the water as fast as he possibly can. From an outside perspective, it looks like he's succeeding in at least moving the water around. But on the other hand, he's not making quite the dramatic effect that Jiraiya had. Obviously, there's a trick to this that he's just not figuring out.

Closing my eyes, I focus on the small quantity of water in my hands, breathing deeply as I try to connect with this rather stubborn element. _Man…if water is this hard, I don't even wanna know how hard it's going to be to figure out earth style jutsu._

"Come on and burst, you stupid balloon." Naruto's frustrated voice penetrates my concentration in an instant. Then, he sighs. "Nothing…what do I gotta do!?"

"What you've gotta do is focus!" I open my eyes and glare irritably at my best friend. "If you let yourself get distracted, you'll never figure it out!"

"But Cia…" Naruto's whine draws out a little, and it just shows how frustrated he really is, since he always tries pretty hard to never whine or complain. At least not in front of others.

I sigh, knowing full well that out of the two of us, I'm the one who has to keep calm. "Naruto, just try to keep focused. I know that it's hard at first, it always is when you're learning something new." I rest my elbow on my knee, propping up my head lazily. "What happened when you were learning how to make shadow clones? Was that easy?"

He grimaces slightly, then shakes his head. "That was the hardest thing I ever did."

"Exactly." I point straight at the balloon. "If shadow clones were that hard, then a jutsu that we've never even heard of, let alone seen used by more than one person isn't going to be easy to master. And the old man said that it was going to be trial and error. That means that your determination is going to be what pushes you through this. Which means that you can't go and get frustrated!" I lay it all out for him, because someone has to.

He blinks at me, then nods tiredly. "Okay, let's do this until the sun goes down."

A smile tugs at my lips upon hearing his words. "Yeah, let's do this." As he returns to hi own assignment, I look down at the water balloon in my own lap. _Now…what should I do about that…?_ Remembering what Jiraiya told to Naruto, I let my chakra stream into the balloon, spinning the water as fast as I can. The problem is that it looks exactly the same as Naruto's attempts, and the balloon just jiggles around a little. I groan slightly. _This is going to be a lot harder than I thought._

* * *

 _"Help me…" A weak, strangled voice calls out in the darkness._

 _I swirl around, unable to see anything at all. "Who's there!?"_

 _"H-help m-me…" There's a groan of pain, then a terrible, bloodcurdling scream._

 _"Who are you!?" I spin around frantically, peering through the darkness, trying to locate the source of the voice. "Please! Tell me who you are! How can I help you!? How can I find you!?"_

 _A terrible coughing pops up behind me, and I turn to see a boy covered in blood and burns. Fair hair falls around his face, framing soft pink eyes that express worlds of pain._

 _Yagura._

 _He collapses in front of me, falling to the ground, where he writhes in pain. I try to race towards him, but it feels as though I'm stuck in honey, unable to approach him. But I can't just leave him there, I have to help him. So I take a step forward, forcing every inch._

 _After what seems like an eternity, I reach the side of the older boy, and I touch his skin, only to find it cold. In a panic, I pull him up and lean him against my chest as I kneel next to him. It's a little awkward, since he's definitely taller than I am, but that's not what's important right now._

 _"Yagura, Yagura! What's wrong!? What happened to you!?" I shake him gently, trying to get him to wake up. "Yagura!"_

 _"They're coming…" His eyes flutter a little, revealing only a sliver of pink. "You have to run."_

 _"What!?" My blood starts to run cold in my veins. "Who's coming?"_

 _"Akatsuki…" And without another word, he goes limp, and doesn't move again._

 _"Yagura? Yagura!" I shake him again, harder this time. But it's no use, he's unresponsive. "Damn it!" I hug him closer to my chest, rocking slightly. "Why is this happening to me…?" Tears drip down my face as I rock back and forth, Yagura's cold, injured body in my arms._

* * *

I wake to a shaking feeling, and I open my eyes clumsily, trying to bat away the pressure on my shoulder. "Ciara, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

The pressure of Yagura in my arms is gone, vanished into nothingness. And it occurs to me that I'm lying down. I follow the pressure on my shoulder, sitting up and blinking groggily as I look up to see a pair of clear blue eyes. "Naruto…?" I sniff slightly, then raise my hands to my face, finding my cheeks wet. "What…?" Then, it occurs to me that I must have just woken up. "It was a dream…?"

Naruto nods slightly. "Yeah, it looked like you were having a nightmare."

"I see…" That certainly makes sense. It's been a couple of weeks since the last time I had a dream like that one, and I'd rather been hoping that the dreams wouldn't come back. It seem I'm not that lucky.

As I wipe my tears away, Naruto backs off a little. "Hey, it's time to get to training…are you up for it?"

Instinctively, I nod. "Yeah, I can do it." It's probably one of the best things for me to do in order to get my mind off of everything I just saw. "Give me a few minutes to shower and change, and I'll meet you outside, okay?"

Naruto nods, backing off a bit more. "Alright, I'll be outside." And he leaves me alone in the room, giving me a chance to properly catch my breath.

After a shower and yet another hike, most of my thoughts have been successfully driven away from the realm of my nightmares. And while Naruto gets himself set up to continue training, I sit down against a tree, looking up at the sky in order to clear out my thoughts. It feels like things are happening too quickly, and yet, it feels like other things aren't happening fast enough. It's a strange feeling, like being both stuck in time, as well as prancing through it without a care. And I lower my head into my hands as those thoughts start to make my head hurt.

"Alright!" I raise my head to see Naruto stretching towards the sun. "Time to get back to training!" He tosses me a balloon, which lands squarely in my lap. "You too! We gotta figure this jutsu out today!"

"Today?" Then, I remember that Naruto proclaimed that he would figure out the jutsu in three days. "Oh. Well…if you insist…" I roll the balloon between my fingers, once again trying to figure out the trick to this jutsu.

Actually, it's rather strange. The training method doesn't really seem to match what I saw the jutsu do. From the glimpse I caught of it, it looked like Jiraiya had tried to contain a storm within the jutsu. And what that has to do with water, I'm not entirely sure.

Frustrated, I toss the balloon into the air, catching it with my hand, before twirling it around and tossing it right back up, putting a backhand spin on it just for kicks. I sigh, bored out of my mind as I try to run through all of the details of the jutsu, trying to keep my hands busy in the meantime. The balloon changes hands over and over, never spending more than half a second in contact with my skin.

 _Great…at this rate, I'm going to develop a bunch of nervous habits._ I know full well what kinds of things happen to ninja who get bored, and I have no intention of letting that happen to me. But that doesn't make it any easier when water is being a stubborn element, and this jutsu just seems impossible to help Naruto figure out. Maybe a nervous habit will come in handy when I need distracting from all this crap.

Unfortunately, my distraction soon leaves me soaking wet as the balloon I've been tossing around bursts right above my head, drenching me with mercifully warm water. I cough as a little of the water makes its way into my mouth, and I shake my head, letting the water run off my hair in droplets. "Damn it…"

"Hey, Ciara, how'd you do that!?" Naruto races over, looking a little too excited, considering that I just drenched myself.

"Do what?" I have no clue what he's talking about, or why he's so excited about it. But whatever it is, I have a feeling that it's not going to end well.

He points at the remnants of the balloon on the ground. "The balloon popped! Like, exploding kid of pop!"

"It…popped…" For a few seconds, I have no idea why that would make him so excited. "Wait…" I look down at the colorful latex pieces. "It popped?" My eyes widen slightly. "Oh."

"So?" Naruto kneels in front of me, looking excited. "How'd you do that?"

Looking down at my hands, I turn them over in wonder. "I'm…not entirely sure. I was just tossing it up and down and it exploded on me."

Naruto's eager grin quickly turns into a frown as he starts thinking about what I've said. "You tossed it up and down?" He stares down at his own balloon, before pressing it into my hands. "Well, do it again!"

"Again?" I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to pull it off again, but I suppose that it wouldn't hurt to try. So, I start rolling the balloon around in my hand, closing my eyes as I let my body take over. I toss the balloon up into the air, before catching it again and rolling it over the back of my hand, flicking it off my fingers and tossing it into the air again. I repeat the motions over and over, not particularly caring which direction it goes in. And my movements get progressively faster as I release my chakra through my fingertips.

About a minute and a half later, there's another deluge on my head, and I'm still not particularly pleased about slowly being drenched. "Is that enough for you?" I open my eyes and look up at him, hoping that he's going to day yes.

He frowns at me, then nods his head, a smile growing on his face. "Alright, I'll try it!" He jumps to his feet and races back off towards the big bag of balloons, grabbing one in each hand, before whipping one of them straight at my face. "Catch!"

Luckily for him, I'm rather good at catching things, and I snatch the balloon out of the air before it has the chance to smash right into my nose. "Dummy…" I sigh and shake my head, before a smile creeps onto my face. "Get bak to work, already. Don't you have a jutsu to master in your three day deadline?"

"Yeah!" He jumps into the air, before going right back to focusing on the balloon in his hands. And in a desperate attempt to mimic the movements I was making earlier, he starts tossing the ball around like a little kid on the playground. And there's more than a few grunts and groans from his direction as he tries not to let the balloon smash on the ground.

And somehow, I get the feeling that this isn't going to work out very well for Naruto. Not like he wants it to, anyway.

* * *

Jiraiya doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that I'm not a morning person either. His loud snoring is my wake-up call when it starts to get nearly unbearable just after dawn. I swear, that man could out-snore a hibernating bear if he wanted to.

So, I pick myself up and look around, only to find that Naruto isn't in the room anymore. Which is strange, because I know that we fell asleep next to each other last night, after he dragged his futon to my corner of the room to get away from the old pervert's sleep rolling. _He must have gone to get something to eat…_

My stomach starts to rumble, which means that getting some food probably isn't a bad idea. So I change out of my pajamas and yawn as I walk downstairs towards the dining room that the inn has set aside to serve their guests. And that's precisely where I find a rather distressed looking Naruto.

Ignoring the fact that my body is demanding food for the moment, I sit across from Naruto and scrutinize him. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He looks up at me, very clearly freaked out, and he holds up his right hand. "I'm having a nervous breakdown."

I drop my eyes to his hand, and I notice the minute but constant twitching of the muscles. "Ah…I see." I reach across the table and take his hand in mine. "You've been working your chakra network so hard that your nerves are rebelling. They can't handle all the stress that you've been putting them under."

He grimaces, and I can see hints of pain in his expression. "Can you fix my hand?"

"Yes…" My eyes go and drift over the rest of him. "But I have a feeling that the rest of you is in the same shape. So I should probably take care of all of it at once."

"Huh?" His eyes widen slightly. "You can do that?"

I let go of his hand and lace my fingers together, cracking all of my knuckles. "I think so. But it's going to involve a lot of chakra, as well as a full-body massage. And at some points, it's probably going to hurt. You up for it?"

He winces slightly, probably p=thinking about what I mean by a full-body massage. But upon weighing the options, he nods. "Alright. Let's do this."

* * *

A half hour later, we're back up at the training grounds, and Naruto ruefully makes another mark in the tree, signifying that this is the fourth day, past his self-imposed three day deadline. Once that's done, he turns to me and takes a deep breath. "Okay, so how do we do this?"

I look around and point to a nice grassy spot. "Strip down to your boxers and go lie down over there on your stomach."

He looks at me like I'm nuts, before shrugging and pulling off his clothes. They end up strewn across the ground between me and the grass, leaving me to pick up after him and pile his clothes together as he stretches himself out in the soft green grass.

The clothes fall in a heap next to him as I crawl over him and settle myself down on his back. "Alright, you ready to get started?"

Hissing slightly, he shifts underneath me. "Yeah."

"Good." I crack my knuckles once more before pressing my hands to his back, chakra flooding my extremities. "Because this is going to get worse before it gets better."

I teach him exactly what I mean by that when I press my hands down hard, working the chakra deep into his muscles as I loosen them up. I need to get through to his nerves and soothe them, which means that a deep tissue massage is my best bet. Of course, I've only ever seen these performed in the hospital, I've never actually performed one myself. But I learn quickly, and Naruto makes for the perfect test dummy.

Groans quickly fill the air as I press deep into his muscles. "That hurts…"

I sigh sympathetically. "I know, but it'll feel better soon, I promise." And it's a promise that I definitely intend to make good on.

My hands continue to wander, pressing into his back, his legs, his shoulders, as well as his arms and neck. My chakra flows into him, stimulating the nerves, as well as dulling the painful sensations he's sure to be feeling. I press down on his spine again, this time, eliciting a more satisfied groan from him. "Do that again…"

A smirk curls my lips at the sound. "Well, seems like the massage is working."

"Yeah…" He sighs a little, sinking deeper into the grass as his muscles relax. "You're really good at this…"

"Thank you.!" It makes me happy that my training and observation skills are being put to good use. It also means that I'll be able to put these skills into practice later, if someone else ends up doing like Naruto and pushing themselves too hard.

Finally, as my own muscles start to protest with the effort required to give such a thorough massage, Naruto starts to shift a little. "Hey, I think I'm good now, Ciara."

"You sure?" I slide off his back, allowing him to shift onto his knees. "Because I can keep going if you're still sore."

He shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good." He looks over at the balloons, before walking over to grab hold of one. "I…I think I've got an idea."

"Really?" I know that he's been trying pretty hard the last few days, but this is the first time he's said that he's had an idea. At least, one that I assume has nothing to do with me or my newly developing nervous habit.

"Yeah." He rolls the ball around in his right hand, before running his left hand over the top. His fingers curl slightly, resembling claws as he passes his hand over the surface of the balloon. "Watch this. I got the idea from watching a cat earlier."

"A cat?" I've heard of getting inspiration from strange places, but this is definitely not where I would expect Naruto to get his inspiration from. Then again, I suppose that it couldn't hurt to watch him and see if he's really figured something out.

He nods, staring at the balloon. Then, his chakra surges a little, and he starts clawing at the surface of the balloon, never making actual contact, but running his chakra over it like a cat clawing at a toy. And right before my eyes, the water in the balloon starts to move, and the surface becomes bumpy, just like the demonstration from the first day. And between Naruto's fingers, the balloon starts to become spiky and rough, before exploding all over his fingers.

My eyes widen as they find Naruto's, and identical grins spread across our faces. _He's done it._ "How did you do that!?"

He grabs a couple of balloons and races back over to me, plopping one down in my hand. "It's easy! I just watched the cat roll the balloon around a bunch, and he was spinning it in all sorts of crazy directions!"

"In all sorts of directions…" Understanding dawns on me as a small diagram starts playing out in my head. "So that's the trick…" Jiraiya definitely kept that to himself. I smirk slightly. "Well, what are you going to do with it now?"

Naruto stares at the balloon in my hand. "First, I'm gonna watch you do it. Then, we're gonna go to Pervy Sage and get a little payback!"

I'm a little confused by the fact that Naruto wants me to do this too, but I suppose that I can humor him. My eyes drop to the balloon in my hand, and I take a deep breath as chakra swirls from my fingertips. Naruto said that it was about spinning it in different directions. In which case, if I stop treating it like there's water in the balloon, and instead pretend that it's air, I should be able to…

The balloon explodes in my hands, the water whipping out in every direction, some of it turning to mist. "So…it really is like unleashing a little tornado inside the balloon."

"Huh?" Naruto scrunches his eyebrows together. "What are you talkin' about?"

"Nevermind." I get to my feet, planting a kiss right between Naruto's eyes, before blinking as I realize that I just did. "Huh, weird." Then, I shrug and grab Naruto's hand. "Come on, we've got an old pervert to wake up."

The confusion on Naruto's face disappears in an instead, replaced by a mischievous smile. "Yeah!"


	55. Rubber Balls Are Less Fun Than Bath Time

**Well, the semester is over, finally, which means no more studying for exams, and no more two and a half thousand word essays. I swear, sometimes it feels like my teachers are trying to kill me instead of teach me. I've also got a tone of sleep that needs catching up on, and I've been getting to work on that the last couple of days.**

 **Fortunately, I managed to get through my exams, and my marks are starting to come in. And they look fairly promising so far, which is always nice. But as of noon on Wednesday, I have been free to finally catch up on sleep, and get back to writing fiction instead of history essays. And damn were those essays hard. But now that my brain's gotten a chance to rest and relax, I'm ready to dive back into my fiction and get back to the stories that people seem to really enjoy reading. So, I thank you for your patience and understanding. I meat to finish and post this yesterday, but life happened, and it got a bit delayed. Still, I hope that you enjoy.**

 **Let's start off with some comical stupidity, shall we?**

* * *

Back at the inn, I watch from the corner as Naruto stands over Jiraiya, frowning irritably. I am fully aware of the fact that Naruto is not known for his patience, but he could cut the old man some slack, since it's still morning. I have sympathy for anyone forced to get up while it's still morning, even if they don't deserve the pity. But knowing him, his impatience is going to get the better of him, and quickly.

He huffs impatiently. "Come on, drag those old bones out of bed."

Jiraiya groans slightly as he turns over. "Good…since you're here…bring me some water, would ya?"

"Some water?" At the sound of the request, Naruto's frown turns into a grin, and I raise an eyebrow as he goes for the bag of water balloons. He picks one up and stalks back over to Jiraiya. _He's not…no way, he wouldn't._

But, contrary to my expectation, or rather, in accordance with my subconscious expectation, and contrary to what I'd consciously hoped would happen, Naruto holds the balloon out over Jiraiya's face. He scratches all over the balloon with chakra laced fingers, replicating the techniques from earlier. And all of the water once contained within the balloon splashes down onto Jiraiya's face. _Looks like he would…dummy._

Naruto smirks down at the old man as he sputters bemusedly. "So…that's the first phase of training. What's next?"

"Huh…?" Jiraiya blinks slightly, pushing himself into a sitting position. I toss him a towel to dry off with, and he glances sleepily up at Naruto. "Ah, you did it, huh? Would you mind giving me a little demonstration?"

The smirk doesn't disappear for an instant as Naruto pulls out another of the balloons, holding it in his left hand this time, to balance the pressure he's been putting on his body. Thankfully, he seems to be learning from his mistakes. Including the one involving training so hard one way that he nearly fried his nerve endings.

"Watch carefully. Keep your eyes on the balloon." Naruto focuses his own gaze on the spotted blue balloon as Jiraiya's own eyes fall onto the tiny object. Naruto starts clawing at this balloon as well, twisting up both the water and the chakra until the thin layer of latex can;t take the pressure anymore. It explodes over Jiraiya's futon, soaking it with a fine mist, and Naruto crows triumphantly. "There, old man! What'd ya think of that!?"

Jiraiya's head droops as he starts nodding off again. "Oh boy…" Naruto just splutters at the sight of Jiraiya taking absolutely no interest in his accomplishment. Sighing, I get to my feet. "I've got this…"

With little to no hesitation, I raise my hand up and bring my hand down on the top of Jiraiya's head in an attempt to smack some sense into him. It seems to work, seeing as it jolts him out of his dazed state, and he falls right over onto the floor, wincing and rubbing his head. "Hey…what was that for?"

I scoff lightly. "Just get up and get dressed. We've got another long day ahead of us. And if you want to get back to your research, I suggest that you just suck it up and assign Naruto something to do." It's the only way to keep him busy and out of everyone's hair.

Grumbling slightly, Jiraiya agrees and gets himself dressed. I'm not entirely sure where he found his outfit, but somehow, he manages to not make the dull green-gray and the bright red clash too badly. That said, the colors still clash. But it could be a whole lot worse, given what monstrosities I've seen back home.

Soon enough, the three of us are sitting down in the dining room with full trays of food. Jiraiya yawns slightly, then focuses his attention on Naruto. "Sorry about that. I've just been working day and night. You know, doing research."

I do my utmost to resist the urge to introduce my palm to my face. If I were as bad at reading people as Naruto, I would probably believe every word that came out of this guy's mouth. That aid, it's more than obvious that there's a lot more to this old man than what meets the eye. Sure, he's a pervert, but he's not a complete moron. Well, most of the time.

Jiraiya soon starts to chuckle. "Looks like you did it. Good for you. I guess that little tip I gave you helped out after all."

Naruto is about to bite back at Jiraiya, when the sound of a cat comes from right underneath the table. I look down, and Naruto grins as he goes right for the cat. "Actually, I've really got him to thank." He picks the cat up, snuggling the little guy in his arms. "I was watching this guy play around with my balloon, and I got a brilliant idea. See, he kept knocking it back and forth, which meant the water must be going back and forth too in different directions. That's when it came to me!"

Jiraiya's eyes narrow slightly. "And what would that be?"

"I thought back to when you were showing me what to do that first time. I remembered how bumpy the surface of the balloon got, like it was boiling. My problem was I was making the water rotate, but in only one direction. That's why my balloon was smooth, and not bumpy like yours. If I wanted the balloon to burst, then I had to get the water spinning in a bunch of different directions." He grins at me. "Though, I figured out about half of it when I was watching Ciara get distracted. She started tossing one of the balloons around, rolling it and spinning it in all sorts of directions, and then it just exploded right over her head. I couldn't make the balloon pop by tossing it around the way Ciara did, so I used this little guy's way of doing it!"

Jiraiya looks to me carefully. "So, does that mean that you've figured out how to do it as well?"

An uncomfortable grimace crosses my face. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Though I kind of feel like I cheated a bit, since I applied the principles of my wind style to the idea. It's like the idea of holding a hurricane in your hand."

He nods slightly. "That's one way to put it, I suppose." Then he chuckles once more. "Okay then, you have successfully completed the first step."

"Alright!" Naruto leaps into the air happily, dropping the poor cat in his excitement. "Here, let me show you one more time!? Wanna see it again!?"

I pull on Naruto's ear and tug him back towards the ground. "Don't get so excited, you'll hurt yourself!" I'm really not looking forward to all the healing that I'll no doubt be doing by the time he's done training each day.

"Hey! Let go of me!" He pouts a little as he struggles to get out of my grip. "That hurts…"

I sigh and release my hold on his ear. "Fine. Just take it easy, alright? The last thing we need is for you to injure yourself."

"Shall we get going, then?" Jiraiya gets up from the table, his breakfast wholly consumed. "We can get start on the second phase now."

"Alright!" Naruto jumps for joy yet again, this time following closely behind Jiraiya as he makes his way back out of the inn and off towards the secluded spot that we've been using for training.

This time, I'm the one who gets to haul around the water balloons, seeing as I still have yet to figure out water style. _Not that it could be much harder…_ Though I know full well that griping about it is not going to get me any closer to actually performing it. Hence why I've kept my mouth shut about it so far this morning.

Once out of range of the town, Jiraiya sighs, faced with Naruto's boundless enthusiasm. "Alright, are you ready to proceed to the second step now?"

"Yeah!" Naruto pumps his fist into the air eagerly. "Enough with the kids stuff! What's next!? Weapons!? Or-"

"Here you go." Jiraiya tosses him what looks to be a plain white rubber ball.

Naruto squeezes it, frowning. "A rubber ball?" Then, he looks right back up at Jiraiya. "Hey…come on, you're kidding me, right?"

Jiraiya takes out another ball and tosses it to me. "Lets see if either of you can pop this one."

I look at the ball, squeezing it slightly, finding it rather firm. "When you say pop…do you mean pop a hole in it, or make it explode?"

Jiraiya smirks at me. "Well, what do you think? You've got some pretty volatile chakra from what I've seen. Try your best to make that ball vanish!"

"Vanish?" I look down at the ball in my hand. _So, he wants me to completely obliterate it then…_ I squeeze the ball tightly in my hand, then close my eyes. _Fine then…_ I take a deep breathe, focusing my chakra the way I would if I were going to spit it out of my mouth as a torrent of fire. Something volatile and explosive. _Now!_

My eye flash open, and as I release the chakra, the ball quivers, then vanishes with a loud bang and a small column of smoke, leaving nothing behind in the palm of my hand. And when I look up, I see Jiraiya nodding approvingly. "Nicely done. I had a feeling that you would be able to demonstrate that well. It's too bad that you're a long range and mid range fighter, otherwise this would be a great technique for you to focus on as well."

Sighing, I roll my eyes. "It's fine, I'll help Naruto figure it out as much as I can, but it's not really the kind of skill that I see myself using. It's too…constricted for my style."

"Yes…I can see why you would say that." Jiraiya regards me sagely. "Anyway, why don't you go play with those water balloons again. You still haven't figured out how to manipulate the water, have you?"

"Not yet…" I grit my teeth, containing my frustration as best I can. "It's just proving to be a bit difficult, that's all. I'll figure it out…" _Eventually…_ Well, once I figure out what exactly is blocking me, or some way to get around it.

"Good…" Jiraiya nods approvingly, before turning back to Naruto. "Now, you'd better get started, this is a lot harder than a water balloon."

Naruto squeezes the rubber ball in his hand, before going to work, clawing at it like an animal. The ball tarts to move, sure, and the surface even starts to become rather bumpy. But this ball is a lot more resilient and stubborn than the water balloons, and it quickly regains its shape, leaving Naruto with a face full of frustration.

Jiraiya looks like he expected this outcome. Then, he holds up his hand. "The first element is rotation, the second element is force. But this object is solid, there's no water inside. So, it's far more difficult to exert your chakra rotation on it."

"Yeah, I can see that." Naruto frowns at the ball, squeezing it tightly in his palm.

"Well then, I'll leave you to it." Jiraiya stretches his arms over his head and glances at me. "And make sure that you don't get too sidetracked by Naruto's training. You need to figure out your next element."

I reach for a water balloon and go about tossing it around a little. "Yeah, I know. Though it might be easier if you left me with a jutsu to practice with as well."

"You think so…?" Jiraiya raises an eyebrow. "Well, if you think that's the best way…" He reaches inside of his shirt and pulls out a small scroll. "Here, this has some basic water style jutsu in it. Knock yourself out." He tosses it right at my head, leaving me to catch it before it gives me a bruise. "Be careful, though. It takes a lot more chakra to produce water from nothing, than if you use water that already has a source. Don't push it too hard."

I scoff quietly. "Don't worry about me, chakra is not something that I'm in short supply of."

"Is that so…?" He eyes me curiously, before disappearing from sight.

With the old pervert nowhere in sight, Naruto turns to me, looking a little frustrated. "Okay, you mind telling me how you did that?"

"What?" I raise an eyebrow at him, not understanding the question.

He holds up the rubber ball in his hand. "You made it burst like it was nothing."

 _Ah…so that's it._ I hold up my hands, pressing them close together. "Well, you have to twist and compress the chakra into a tiny little ball, like squeezing a rag really tight to get all of the water out. Squeeze it tighter and tighter, until it screams at you to let it go, and then let it all explode at once!"

Naruto frowns at my explanation, but since I would rather not try to confuse him and myself with the finer mechanics of chakra control, this was the best I had. Besides, it's not like it's inaccurate. It's basically the same principle that I apply whenever I decide that fire is going to come out of my mouth. Which probably happens more often than it should.

After a minute, Naruto nods quickly, determination taking over his expression. "Alright, then I've got work to do!" He places his free hand on top of the ball, squishing it between his palms. And from the look on his face, I should probably back away quickly. Something tells me that this attempt is going to go wrong somehow, and that I probably shouldn't be within earshot when it happens.

* * *

I wish that I could say that the day was more productive. But the fact is, I haven't felt so unproductive and useless since my early days of learning medical ninjutsu. Calling that training hard would be an understatement, especially since I insisted on doing almost all of it on my own. Even learning to control wind and fire were easier than this. Then again, maybe I'm just more suited to the intangible elements, rather than the more solid ones.

Regardless, after a long day of sitting in the dirt, trying to figure out my latest project, I need a bath. Of course, seeing as I feel very uncomfortable taking my clothes off around anyone that isn't Naruto, I've waited until every sane person has long since gone to bed to commandeer the inn's bathing room. And just to be sure, I've locked the door behind me. Not that I really think it's necessary, or polite, but I just want to be sure.

Sitting down next to one of the taps, I run the water until it's warm, before reaching for the shampoo. Luckily, I had the presence of ind when packing to bring along some of my usual bath products. I couldn't be sure that we would crash in a place that had something that would smell fine. Especially seeing as I've noticed that sometimes, my nose can be rather sensitive.

As I massage the fruity smelling gel through my hair, my nose twitches. _Huh…I wonder why my sense of smell is so strong in the first place…_ I suppose that it could just be some kind of side-effect of my training thus far, but if so, that's a little weird. I'm not Kiba, so I don't need to make myself seem more like a dog just to fit into my lifestyle.

Shoving my head under the flow of warm water, I run my fingers through my hair to wash out all of the suds. But I stifle a groan as my fingers become stuck. _Great…and of all days to not have my hairbrush with me…_ Cursing my bad luck that my hairbrush would be the one thing that I forgot to bring with me, I try in vain to work through the stubborn knots in my hair. _Why couldn't I have straight hair, like Sakura and Ino…?_

I struggle with the knots for a couple of minutes, before sighing in resignation. "Today just isn't my day…" It would be totally fair to say that I hate my hair. Not only is it unmanageable whenever it damn well wants to be, it's also the color of mud. And not nice looking mud either. For now, though, I would settle for just getting the knots out of it.

Pondering how to deal with the damn knots, an idea comes to mind as I envy Ino's straight hair. _Well…maybe…_ It's a strange idea, but I suppose it has promise. I gather some chakra into my fingertips, turning my hand over to examine the concentration, before running my fingers through my hair, tugging gently at the knots.

After a few minutes of patience, and running a steady stream of chakra through my hair under the tap, the knots gently come undone. Pleased with that result, I quickly run conditioner through the locks before rinsing that out as well, running more chakra through my hair to keep out any tangles. _Ah…if only I'd figured this out years ago. It would have saved me so much trouble, and probably a couple of hairbrushes as well._ It's a little embarrassing to recall the brushes that have met their end by the force of my temper. When it comes to mundane things like brushing my hair, I can get rather impatient about it.

Quickly scrubbing myself clean, I finish rinsing myself off, before walking over the wooden floor and sliding into the large bathtub. The water is nice and warm, and I can already feel my muscles relaxing. Though, I suppose that warm would be putting it mildly. I'm sure that most people would probably be wincing at the temperature of the water, but I guess when you have a demon sealed inside of you that has an affinity for fire, then nothing feels quite as hot as it should.

I've worked up quite a bit of tension these past several days, trying to figure out how to make myself resonate with an entirely new element, and one completely unlike the two that I've already attuned myself to. And that tension is definitely not good for my developing body. My muscles feel like they want to rip themselves in half, and I doubt that there is anything that I could do to stop them.

So, I allow myself to sink into the hot water, sighing deeply as the warmth works its way into my muscles. Sometimes, it's just nice to float around in the bath, rather than try to swim around. In fact, it's so nice that I could probably fall asleep here, no matter how bad an idea that is. The last thing I need is someone breaking down the door to find me asleep in the bath. Naruto would never let me hear the end of it.

Lifting my hand from the water, I open my eyes and look at the water as it drips from my fingers. On a whim, I gather chakra at my fingertips, letting the energy just flow through me as I relax. I don't really expect anything to happen, I just like the feeling of my chakra flowing through my body.

That's why it's a complete shock when the water stops dripping from my fingertips, and just hangs there in little droplets. I freeze in utter amazement, as well as total shock. Did I just… I flick my fingers, and the droplets go flying back into the water, causing much larger ripples than something of that size should. _No way…_

I quickly stand up in the bath, letting the water come up to just above my waist. Raising my arms above the water, I summon up my chakra once more. And obeying my will, the chakra comes, shaking the water around me. I swallow nervously, then lower my hands to the water, before raising them up once more. This time, the water sticks to them, rising up under my fingers. With a slightly shaky breath, I lower my hands, letting go of both the chakra and the water.

After a quick and paranoid look around, and a chance to determine that there's no one around to walk in on me, I press my hands together. _Okay, just take it easy, and everything should be fine._ Weaving a few signs, I sway a little in the water as I take a deep breath. Then, I aim right at the center of the bathtub, expelling a single short jet of water from my mouth. _...Well, I doubt that the water bullet is supposed to look like that, but...maybe with some practice, it'll look a little less pathetic?_

It would probably be bad to stick around and use the bathing room for practice, so I pull myself out of the bath and dry myself off, changing into a small bathrobe, before unlocking and leaving the room. As I rub the tower over my hair, I notice that my fingertips are tingling a little with the last few surges of my chakra. It's strange, since it's not at all like the pressure I feel when gather wind chakra in my hands, but it's not an unpleasant sensation. In fact, I think that I could grow to like this kind of tingle.

Looking back on my evening, this is hardly how I expected to really start my water style training, but I suppose that it's best to just take whatever opportunity that I'm given. It also shows me that I've definitely been going about all of this the wrong way. Obviously, trying to work with a little water balloon was never going to work. So It would probably be best if I focused on larger bodies of water for now.

Unfortunately, that means that I had better get used to wearing a bathing suit in front of an old pervert.


	56. The Trials of Training

**Okay, so this took a lot longer than I thought it would, but that's probably because I've had writer's block for a bit, plus quite a bit of homework. But, thanks to some writing I've been doing a lot of the last couple of days, I got inspired enough to write this…well, kinda depressing chapter, actually. It's more emotional content than canon material, but I really feel like I need to address Jiraiya's bad attitude. Because yes, he's got a pretty bad attitude when you first meet him.**

 **I also had trouble naming the chapter, which did not help in inspiring me to write it.**

* * *

Three weeks, three long weeks that the two of us have been waiting for Jiraiya to come up with some kind of a solid lead. In that time, Naruto has managed to work himself right into the ground. In fact, if it weren't for that inhuman stamina of his, which I do not attribute to the Fox in the slightest, he probably would have dropped dead from all of this training a long time ago.

Which is what causes me to sigh as I kneel over his exhausted form, chakra flooding my fingertips as I massage his sore and trembling arms. "Have I ever told you that you're an idiot?"

"Yeah, like a million times." Naruto laughs weakly. "I think you call me one more than Sasuke does." Some days, that might actually be true.

I go quiet for a moment upon hearing Sasuke's name. I know full well that the Leaf has good medical care, but that doesn't mean that I'm not still worried about his health. "I hope he's okay…" He was in pretty rough shape when we parted ways with Gai.

Naruto stares up at me, his blue eyes easily reflecting the sky. "It's Sasuke, he'll be okay, believe it!" His faith is definitely something else. As long as it's for someone else's sake, he'll believe until the cows come home.

I nod quietly, turning my attention back to his arms. He's been pushing himself so hard lately that his body can't keep up with the exertion. He's wearing his body out by pushing too much chakra through it. If he were anyone else, he would have collapsed long before getting to this point, but of course, this is Naruto, the one with inhuman stamina. Instead of being forced to stop before damaging himself like this, he can just push right through it and hurt himself worse in the long run.

The only upside to all of this is that it's giving me more chances to refine my medical ninjutsu. Since right now, I'm not only treating his overstimulated nerves, but also his strained muscles, and overworked chakra network. Of course, with the complexity of all of that, there's still only so much that I can do for him.

As the shaking in his arms starts to diminish, Naruto flexes his fingers experimentally, wincing a little as he curls them into a fist. "Why does this hurt so much?"

Irritated, I smack the back of his hand, causing him to yelp. "They hurt because you're channeling five times as much uncontrolled chakra through them as is recommended in any given day, and you've been doing that every day for weeks! What were you expecting was going to happen? For your chakra network and nerves to just be able to take it all with no consequences!? You're not indestructible! No matter how much you try to prove otherwise…"

He recoils slightly at my tone. "Sorry…I just…" He trails off for a moment. "I just want to get this jutsu down…" The things that he does to get stronger…

The unusually quiet, but earnest determination on his face convinces me to soften my approach a little. "I know…but if you keep pushing yourself beyond your limits, eventually, you're going to cause yourself some permanent damage. I can keep healing you for now, but at some point, my abilities aren't going to be enough anymore."

"Yeah…" He stares at his hands, but from the looks of it, he's going to continue to push himself at the same pace, despite my warning. And I know full well that when Naruto gets an idea into his head, it's nearly impossible to dissuade him. "I'll be careful for the rest of the day."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes as I draw back my hands, his healing session finished for now. "And I suggest that you take a bath later. The warm water will do your muscles some good. And remember that there's only so far that you can push your body before it starts to rebel." I lean up and press my lips to a whiskered cheek. "Alright, I'm heading back to the pond. Scream if you need me."

The slight grumbling behind me makes me giggle a bit as I head off through the trees towards the pond I'd found last week. Honestly, practicing water style jutsu in the bathtub really wasn't getting me very far. To be fair, even out in the open, I'm still struggling to figure it out. But at least now I can get a water bullet to go more than ten feet. On the other hand, I won't be satisfied until I can shatter a boulder with it.

Pushing my way through the last of the bushes, I come to the secluded pond. About fifteen feet across, and six feet at the middle, it's a perfect place for me to practice. Its tranquil and without any distractions. There aren't even any fish around to jump out of the water and startle me. Though that almost makes it lonely to be training out here.

No matter. I do as I have done for the past week, stripping out of my clothes in order to get closer to the element. Am I worried about someone coming to spy on me? No. I would sense them coming at least a hundred meters away. And besides, even if someone did manage to get close enough to peep, there's nothing for them to look at. The only way my body could be any more childish is if I started to age backwards.

Tossing my clothes into a pile next to the water, I step onto the clear surface, letting my chakra pour out into the pool. My third day out here, I figured out that it makes things easier if I just let my chakra spill out beforehand. That way, it takes less effort for me to connect with the element in the first place. It's similar to how I infuse my chakra into the air around me, only in reverse, as with my wind style, I draw the air towards my chakra, rather than letting my chakra spill outward.

The cool water feels nice on my toes, counteracting slightly my elevated body temperature. And I can feel my chakra resonating with the water, a feeling that has been growing stronger, little by little, with every passing day. Of course, it didn't take me nearly this long to develop a resonance with either of my other two elements, but I'm willing to take what I can get. Besides, with the pace Naruto is training at, it's good for me to have something challenging to do.

Gathering up my chakra in my mouth, my hands move in the appropriate forms, before I turn my gaze on a tree, and spit a short burst of water from my mouth. While I can definitely brag about how good my aim is, disappointment shoots through me as the bullet hits the tree, but only makes a dent in it. Now, it's a fairly large dent, but seeing as my end goal is to be able to shatter a boulder, a dent in a tree isn't going to cut it. I need to be able to take down a tree before trying to take on a boulder.

I take a deep breath and calm myself. _Okay, I need more power behind the blast. That's got to come from speed. I have to make the bullet travel faster if I want it to pierce stone. There's only so much mass I can give to a water bullet, so to make up for it, the bullet needs to travel faster than the eye can see._

It's a solid concept, in theory. The trouble is putting that theory into practice. Water bullets are hard enough without trying to make them travel at the speed of sound. I haven't even gotten my wind blades up to the speed of sound, so I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that for a water bullet.

The only thing I can think of is to just keep practicing until I can increase the speed, and then, work on increasing it bit by bit. Grinding training is really the only thing I can do, hours upon hours of intense training that drains my chakra immensely, but usually provides satisfactory results for any ninjutsu training I do.

So, I let my hands flash together, and chakra build in my stomach. It's kinda like the sensation of breathing out fire, except smaller, more concentrated, and a lot more solid. And until I master it, it's going to feel a lot like throwing up.

I wish that I had Naruto's non-existent gag reflex. Because this is going to be a rather unpleasant afternoon.

The first of many water bullets explodes from my mouth, slamming into a tree in front of me and splintering the bark. Just the bark. Sure, it caused some damage, but it's not nearly powerful enough to apply in a fight. To be effective, I need to at least be able to smash through a tree with it, but preferably a boulder, since I could go up against someone with earth ninjutsu.

 _Maybe…if I increase the density…_ I run through a million small plans in my head, including seize, weight, density, number of projectiles, the speed with which they're hurled, and several other factors, trying to decide on the most effective way to use the technique. Until finally…I decide on one of the most difficult.

 _Multiple small bullets compressed to the density of steel should do it._

And with that, I have a training goal. One that is probably going to drain me dry of chakra, or pretty close to it, by the end of every day… But it's a goal nonetheless. And I plan to accomplish it before we finally get home.

* * *

Hours later, as I walk back into the clearing that Naruto has been using to train, I notice him walking in from the other direction. What's up with that? Did he go back to town or something? Then, my eyes fall on Jiraiya, sitting there in the shade of a tree. _What's going on here…?_

Naruto rubs the back of his head as he holds the small bag of what looks like food out to the old man. "S-say, I was wondering…m-maybe you could stick around a while for today? Help me train?"

Jiraiya snatches the bag from Naruto's grasp. "Sorry, no time! I've got to go into town and keep an appointment with someone whose helping me with my research." It's the same old excuse as always. I swear that all of this old man's creativity goes into his books, because there's none left for him to use to come up with decent excuses for why he won't stick around.

My friend's shoulders slump slightly. "Oh…" And noticing the foreboding sign, I approach him quietly.

"It's up to you to figure it out by yourself, Naruto." Jiraiya's expression becomes a little stern, his entire focus on Naruto alone. "Otherwise there's no point in learning it, for all the good it will do you. I thought I made it clear three weeks ago, stop acting like a helpless child, you're a ninja."

 _Helpless child? He's a ninja now?_ I bite my lip, stopping myself before I say something I might, or might not, regret. _Ninjas are people too. Or have you forgotten that in your old age? You damn pervert._

After a moment of silence, a huge grin spreads across Naruto's face, and he laughs loudly. "Oh sure, of course! Don't worry about me! I understand! Forget about it, I was just asking, that's all. Go on and do whatever you have to do, Pervy Sage."

The old man nods and gets to his feet, brushing the dirt and grass from his clothes. "Alright, then I'll be off now." And he heads right back off to town without even waving goodbye.

Once he's out of sight, Naruto's grin fades, and his shoulders start to shake a little. I clench my fists tightly and silently curse Jiraiya for that stunt. That old man must be the biggest idiot I've ever met. And either utterly ignorant, or completely tactless. He knows what's inside Naruto, so he should at least have an inkling about all the shit that's gone down because of that. Treating Naruto so callously is something that I will not be tolerating, not from anyone.

Reaching out, I wrap my arms around Naruto's shoulders, stilling them manually. "Forget about him, you're what's important, okay?"

Sad blue eyes bore into me, filling me with righteous fury that I struggle to contain. "It's okay…I just have to work harder, that's all."

While his determination is certainly admirable, I have to put my foot down, for the sake of his sanity. "Naruto, I know that you're not going to give this up, no matter what I say. So instead, I want you to make me a promise."

He cocks his head to the side, his eyes slowly filling with confusion. "What kind of promise?"

I release him from my grasp and take hold of his hands. "Promise me that you won't let what other people think drive you to desperate measures. I know that you want to be acknowledged, but I don't want you to kill yourself just to please people that refuse to be satisfied. If you're going to get stronger, do it for the people who matter, not the people who don't. I know that you're strong, and that you're brave, and that you're determined to chase your dreams. But please, don't obsess over impossible standards. Take everything at your pace, and get stronger because you want to, not because you don't want to be overlooked anymore." I nearly burst into tears myself at the thought of him destroying himself. "Please, I don't want to lose you too. We'll both get stronger, I promise, but we have to do it for each other."

"Ciara…" His eyes widen, before his lips turn up in a real smile. "Okay!"

A profound sense of relief washes over me. "Good…" Then, a strange thought comes to mind. "Besides, all those nobodies aside, you still need to get stronger than Sasuke, right?" Even if the opinions of most people don't matter, I know that dangling the idea of Sasuke in front of Naruto is one way to get his determination up through more healthy means. Because trying to erase neglect with acknowledgment of power is just less healthy a motive than a good rivalry.

Naruto perks up at the sound of Sasuke's name. "Yeah, you're right! I totally have to get stronger than that jerk!"

I nod approvingly, happy that his energy levels are back up. "Alright, then let's get to it."

"Right!" Naruto almost jumps for joy as his enthusiasm peaks again. And soon enough, he's back to channeling chakra, trying to get the damn rubber ball to explode. Which, admittedly, is a lot harder than I make it sound.

* * *

Several more hours later, after finishing an evening of intense training, I give Naruto another therapeutic massage to deal with most of the trembling, the two of us eat supper, with me helping Naruto more than not, then crash. That's probably not the healthiest thing to do, but at this point, neither of us cares. It's kind of a train until you drop, but still make time to eat kind of situation.

Over Naruto's snoring, which honestly sounds more like whimpering right now, I can hear approaching footsteps. And while I can't blame Naruto for the whimpering, considering that he's insisted on pushing his body to the limit, I can certainly blame the approaching footsteps for making him desperate enough to do it.

The door opens, and a tall form looms over the two of us. I open my eyes slowly, then turn onto my back, glaring straight up at the old man. I'd like to think that I've at least learned how to glare from Sasuke, if nothing else.

The old man raises an eyebrow. "And what's got your panties in a twist?"

"You." My glare intensifies. "But for Naruto's sake, I won't scream at you." Not yet, anyway…"

He stares at me for a moment, then tilts his head and motions outside. "Come on. You and I need to have a talk."

Yes, we most certainly do. And that's why I get out of bed and follow him, no hesitation. And once we're out of earshot, I stop whispering. "Do you have any idea what you've been doing?"

"Training you and the kid." He says it so simply that I wonder if he's even visited he village at all recently. If he had, then did he just not notice how Naruto's been treated?

I grit my teeth, trying not to grind them together. "By giving us homework assignments? That might work for me, but Naruto isn't wired like I am." When Jiraiya remains silent, my frustration increases. "When he learned how to make shadow clones, he did it because he was trying to impress Iruka-Sensei enough to graduate. And learning how to summon toads was for the sake of impressing and beating everyone at the exams. Now, he's trying to learn an entirely new, and very difficult technique, and the person he's trying to impress with it, you, can't even be bothered to watch! Because if you're not impressed with it, how can he expect Sasuke to be impressed by it either?"

"What, so you expect me to hold his hand or something?" Jiraiya scoffs at the notion. "I'm not your babysitter, you know."

A sour taste fills my mouth. "So what, you're going to act like the rest of them?" I look right back up at him and glare once more. "Because if you're going to treat him like a bug beneath your shoe, then I will protect him from you. I'll always have his back in a fight, and he knows that. But if you insist on acting as callously as those idiotic adults back home, then you'll get to see just how quickly I get angry."

Jiraiya frowns at me disapprovingly. "If you insist on protecting him, he's never going to get stronger."

"That's bullshit, and we both know it." I growl angrily at him. Okay, so my vocabulary might contain more than just jutsu names and medical terminology. But I dare you to find any ninja apart from Hinata who won't swear if you rile them up enough. I only exclude Hinata from the general list because she's just too nice to swear at anyone. "And the worst part about it is that Naruto doesn't even have the energy to whine about it! If he can whine, then it means that he can keep going. But if you break him, I swear that I will shatter you, legendary ninja or not! And that's if it even gets that far, because I'd probably take him away first, take him away from everyone!" My temper is getting the better of me as my protective instincts flare to life.

Jiraiya just eyes me curiously, though curiously flatly at the same time. "And exactly why is it that you two are so attached to each other?"

My expression goes cold in an instant. "Because for a long time, all we had was each other. We've been each other's emotional support that carried us through the roughest patches. Though I guess that an old man who makes a living hitting on girls half his age wouldn't understand that." You'd think that with how old he is, that's he'd seen some bad shit. But if he can't even bring himself to care...then I have no reason to wonder what he might have or haven't seen.

And with an angry swish of my hand, I leave him behind and return to the room, pulling my futon closer to Naruto's and very nearly snuggling my way into his blanket. I just threatened an old ninja, though it's not like he took me seriously. Though that's his mistake. One day, everyone will know just how stupid a mistake it is to make me or Naruto angry. Especially when it comes to protecting each other.

I grasp Naruto's trembling hands, running soothing chakra through them, hoping that it'll help him to sleep a little deeper. And maybe tonight, I'll get to sleep without nightmares.


	57. Step Two: Complete! On to Tanzaku

**I'm leaving a little something important in this chapter that I'll be coming back to every once in a while to give my OC a little more depth (because I totally felt like she didn't have enough problems already). If anyone can pick it out correctly, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.**

* * *

Another morning, and another long day of training ahead. At least, that's the plan. After last night, I'm not really feeling the urge to train. Though I came out here anyway because Naruto is training only a half-kilometer away.

That's about when I feel a sudden surge of chakra from over in Naruto's direction. I've gotten pretty attuned to his chakra, so it's easier for me to sense him than anyone else now.

After about ten seconds, the flare dies down. But his voice suddenly cuts through the air. "Ciara!"

Half intrigued, half alarmed, I turn turn away from the pond and race through the trees, picking up a great deal of speed, before skidding to a stop right next to Naruto. "What is it? What happened?"

He grins as he holds up the rubber ball. The deflated rubber ball. "I popped it!"

I blink quickly, staring at the ball for a few seconds, before a grin breaks out on my face. "Well, you didn't make it explode, but at least you popped a decent sized hole in it."

"Well, well, we seem to have made progress." I blink confusedly as Naruto and I look around to see Jiraiya standing there. I honestly didn't expect him to come, not even after last night. It seems I was wrong about that. He even has a smile on his face.

Naruto winces slightly. "Yeah, but I only made it spring a leak, not burst like you did." Perfect…his nerves are showing again.

Jiraiya glances at me, before pulling a popsicle out from who knows where, opening it up, before splitting the sugary blue sticks apart. The, he holds one out to Naruto. "Here, want one?" He smiles, actually smiles at Naruto. "You've come really far, kid."

Naruto's mouth slowly curves into a smile, before reaching a full blown grin as he reaches for the popsicle and stuffs it in his mouth. "It's delicious!"

Jiraiya grins as well, offering me the other half. But I hold up my hands and shake my head. "You do not want to offer me that much sugar, trust me. I'd be worse than Naruto. I'd bounce off of everything."

Jiraiya chortles as he sticks the popsicle in his mouth, leaving Naruto to pull out his and glare at me. "Hey! That's not cool!"

I raise an eyebrow. "So you like your popsicles warm instead?"

Jiraiya makes a funny noise as he nearly chokes on his popsicle, and I just give him a strange, confused look, mirrored by Naruto. "What's your deal?"

"Nothing…nothing…" He waves me off before returning to the sugary treat. Once the popsicles are gone, Jiraiya tucks away the sticks. "So, ready to try a little experiment?"

Naruto's eyes widen as excitement sparks through them. "Sure!" He's reveling in the sudden attention he's getting, and it's actually rather nice to see.

Jiraiya motions downward as he takes out an ink brush. "Give me your right hand." Naruto doesn't protest as he holds out his right hand for Jiraiya to draw on. And surprisingly…the old man draws a dot, right in the center, with a little tail coming off the end.

Naruto lifts up his hand, stares at the dot with a tail, and frowns. "Uh…what is it?" He tilts his head this way and that, trying to figure out what the little dot is for.

Jiraiya fiddles with one of his armguards, adjusting it to uncover his palm. "Take a look." So, we look, and there's a small swirly dot inked there right in the middle.

"Hm?" Naruto blinks confusedly. "It's the same mark. I don't get it, how's this supposed to help?"

Jiraiya pops the frozen treat back into his mouth. "You're the kind of kid that got yelled at in the academy for lack of concentration, aren't ya?"

"I don't see what that has to do with this." Naruto grumbles and crosses his arms. "Besides, Ciara got yelled at too."

"Yes, but I suspect that had more to do with boredom than concentration issues." I glare flatly at the old perv as he says it like a freaking medical diagnosis. Then, he reaches into his shirt and pulls out a piece of paper. "Look at this piece of paper."

Naruto glances at the paper, then back up at the old perv. "Alright, I've seen it."

Jiraiya nods, the flashes the paper at me. "How about you?"

I roll my eyes and direct my gaze to the paper, focusing in on one of the folds, before letting my peripheral vision wander for several long moments. "Okay, I think I've stared at it long enough."

"Alright." Jiraiya turns the paper around, drawing something on it with the ink brush, before turning it back around. "Give it a second look." And there in the middle of the paper is a black dot with a tail.

Naruto blinks. "Huh? What am I looking at?"

"Well, I don't it'll help if I explain too much right away." Jiraiya snots, removing the posicle stick from his mouth. "But the first time you looked at this paper, your eyes just glanced over the whole thing, am I right?"

"Probably." Naruto shrugs, not really caring about what this test is trying to prove.

"On the other hand…" Jiraiya turns to me. "When you looked at it, you focused on a single spot, before letting your field of vision branch out. Is that correct?"

Naruto stares confusedly at me as I roll my eyes. "Yeah what about it?"

The old man chuckles. "What about it is that a focus like that is typical of someone who's trained for a long time to fight at long range. You like to use your peripheral vision whether you're up close and personal, or fighting from a distance." Then he turns back to Naruto. "Now what happened the second time you looked? Because it happened to both of you." Naruto stays silent, so Jiraiya sighs. "Most likely…the point in the middle?"

That's when it clicks. "A visible focal point, for someone like Naruto whose attention tends to wander with his eyes." Now it makes sense why Jiraiya did this.

"Exactly." Jiraiya nods approvingly. "Usually, when a person's eyes gaze on a blank sheet of paper, they don't focus where to look, their eyes just wander the page. But if you put a dot on it, the mind is drawn there. You're then concentrating on a single point. And with that focus comes spiritual stability, letting you tap into unimaginable power. When you broke open the hole in the rubber ball, I'm sure you must have been trying desperately to gather up the chakra you needed I the palm of your hand."

Naruto's eyes widen. "Yeah, that's right!"

"When you concentrate, you draw out power. But without some sort of target, concentration can be difficult, hence that mark." Jiraiya's eyes flicker to me. "When you perform jutsu, where do you concentrate the power in your hands?"

That's an…odd question. "Well, usually in my fingertips." Then I hold my hand out flat. "But sometimes I focus on the lines in my palms instead. But that's because I try to spread my chakra out, not compress it." Mostly because compressing chakra only happens in my mouth.

"Exactly, and that fits with your style of fighting." Jiraiya points at the mark on Naruto's palm. "Now listen, Naruto. When you're storing up power in your right hand, make sure you concentrate only on that mark."

Naruto stares down into the palm of his hand. "Concentrate…" Then, he clenches his fist. "Alright! I guess I can handle that!"

My earlier frown morphs into a smile at such an exuberant showing of Naruto's enthusiasm. "Do you want me to stick around and watch for a bit?"

He turns to me with a smile. "Nah, it's okay! You still gotta work on that water bullet jutsu right?"

"You sure?" It's moments like this when I worry about him the most. But if I push too hard, even well-meaning support can turn into pity, or some semblance thereof. He nods, so I sight and smile at him. "Alright, then holler if you need me, I'll hear you."

I turn away from him, waving goodbye as I head back towards the pond, where I strip down once again and start the same routine as before. This continues day after day as Naruto works on making three dozen balls pop, and I work on improving my water bullet. It's all hard work, but it's going to pay off, it just has to.

* * *

My hand splashes through the water as I wade in deeper, feeling the flow of the water once again. Thankfully, I've stopped throwing up for the most part. I spent all of yesterday in the bathroom dry-heaving. Of course, I didn't tell Naruto, since that would just make him worry about me, when it's supposed to be the other way around.

My hands come together, and an instant later, a tiny ball of water flies from my mouth, heading straight for a tree. It whistles through the air for a split second, before slamming into the trunk and boring a hole straight through the wood.

I loose four more bullets from my mouth, all aimed in a line up and down the trunk. They slam into it, one after the other. And if my wind style straining has taught me anything, it's how to be accurate. Because no one could possibly fault my aim.

That's when I hear a loud bang, and feel a rumble from where Naruto is. Did he…did he do it? Considering the chakra flare I just felt, that's certainly a possibility. And every other flare has been a lot quieter than this one.

So I pull myself out of the water, dry off as quickly as I can, steam swirling from my skin as my whole body heats up, before pulling my clothes on and making my way through the woods. I make a beeline for the source of the disturbance, only to stop about a hundred meters short when I nearly run right over Naruto.

I look down in a hurry. "Naruto, what happened!?"

He groans as he turns over, and I can see the impossibly long skid mark, along with what looks like a small crater a ways away. No way…

Jiraiya emerges from the trees with a rather satisfied smirk on his face. "Well, that was definitely something." Then he walks over to take a look at Naruto's hand. "Scorched his palm by the looks of it."

I look down to see that he's right. Naruto really did a number on himself. Again. "Dummy…" So I kneel down and gently caress the skin of his hand, spouting chakra from my fingertips as my other hand reaches back into my medical kit for ointment and bandages.

Naruto opens his eyes and sees me, smiles, then smirks up at Jiraiya. "Whaddya know…it finally popped…"

"Well done." Jiraiya concedes the feat. "It looks like you've mastered the second step."

Naruto's grin doesn't falter. "Come on, the, lemme hear the third one."

Jiraiya shakes his head. "That'll have to wait for now, it's time for us to meet up with Tsunade."

I raise an eyebrow. "So you found her then…" But my attention is quickly taken over as I rub ointment onto Naruto's hand. "And as for you, you're resting for a couple of days at least. You'll burn your chakra network at this rate, and I can't heal that. So do me a favor and give yourself a break, because that means that I'll get a break too."

Naruto doesn't seem to like the suggestion, but at the look on my face, he cringes. "Alright, I'll take it easy for a bit."

"Good." I finish spreading the ointment and wrap his hand in bandages. Though, knowing Naruto, he'll probably be mostly healed by morning, thanks to the Fox. And then he'll insist that he's fine, and get right back to training anyway. But I can at least stop him from pushing himself for what's left of today.

* * *

To give Naruto a chance to rest up a bit, we set out for Tanzaku in the morning, and planning to arrive there well after lunch. And…I'm more than a little worried by Jiraiya now, because his enthusiasm levels seem like they're off the charts as we get some distance from the outpost town. "Alright, let's go!"

And then there's the posing…I'm so over all of this posing…

"Let's go? Are you kidding me?" Naruto groans. "Quit acting like a stupid little kid, will ya?"

"What the…?" Jiraiya frowns as he looks back at us. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"

"Whaddyou think!? We're still in the middle of my training!" And Naruto has completely forgotten that he's supposed to be resting. "You said there were three steps to learn, right!?" He holds up three fingers. "Well, I've only learned two of em, so quit holding out on me!"

"Relax!" Jiraiya reaches into is jacket once more. "You can work on the third one while we're walking."

Naruto's eyes widen and brighten. "What!? Are you serious!?"

I groan and shake my head. "What happened to taking some time to rest? You've been working yourself almost to death every day since we left."

My best friend turns to me and pouts. "But I've rested plenty…It's been like a whole day since I've used any chakra. It'll be fine!" Then he turns to the old perv, and his face falls. "Huh? A balloon?"

"Here." Jiraiya tosses him the balloon, which floats through the air weightlessly.

"Okay…?" Naruto catches the balloon, squeezing it slightly. "So what's the deal? An ordinary balloon?"

Jiraiya blows up another balloon for himself, before holding it out in his hand. "The first step you learned was rotation. The second step was power. The third and final step for you to master is this!" He holds the balloon up higher, and it shows…nothing?

I blink at it, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm confused." But instead of clearing up my confusion, Jiraiya just keeps on smiling. Dammit, a demonstration is one thing, but a demonstration that makes no sense is not going to help Naruto in the slightest. Especially if I can't explain it to him.

Naruto stares at it, focusing so hard on the stationary balloon that it looks like he's going to have an aneurysm. And after about half a minute, he loses it. "Argh! Whaddya mean by 'this' already!?"

Jiraiya laughs at Naruto's frustration. "It looks like I'm simply holding an ordinary balloon, doesn't it?"

Naruto's eye twitches. "Whaddya mean 'looks like'? That is all you're doing, you pervy weirdo!"

"Huh?" Jiraiya looks at the balloon in his hand. "Lemme try again, over in my left this time." He smirks at the two of us. "Let's see what's really happening inside the balloon." Chakra begins to gather in the palm of his hand, swirling itself into a perfect sphere of visible chakra. It's the jutsu we saw him use before…and it looks even cooler up close. "Take a look at that! Like a small typhoon."

"So then…" Naruto's eyes drift to the pink balloon in Jiraiya's other hand. "What you're doing in your left hand is also what's happening in the balloon on your right?"

"Then…you've compressed it to such a degree that despite the power of the chakra, it stays stable and controlled enough that it doesn't even pop something as fragile as a balloon…" It's incredible, and requires some pretty impressive chakra control. Which…Naruto is still lacking.

Jiraiya grins widely. "That's right! Whaddya think? Nifty, huh? Now, listen, for the third step, you've gotta draw up one hundred percent of what you've learned so far, and then…maintain it. In other words, keeping the power and the rotation of your chakra at their maximum. First, visualize a thin membrane just inside the balloon, then, of compressing the chakra inside it."

"Membrane?" Naruto tilts his head confusedly.

I sigh, shaking my head. "It's like skin…" Telling him that it's more like the wall of each individual cell in the body might be a little too much for him to handle.

He blinks, then his eyes light up in delight. "Oh, I get it now! So this stage is about keeping up the power and rotation I learned, only this time, without letting them pop open a delicate balloon!"

"Well, you're starting to get the hang of this! Good!" Jiraiya actually seems genuinely pleased with this development.

But Naruto's smile quickly disappears. "So, wait…hold on a second. Why exactly am I going to all this trouble?"

The old perv smirks. "Come here, I'll show ya." He walks a ways away, approaching a rather study looking tree. "Watch closely. After the first two steps of training, you get this." He draws his hand back, concentrating chakra into it, before striking the tree with it and carving a spiral pattern into the bark.

I frown at the sight of it. "That's…not very powerful. It's cool looking, but it doesn't seem like it's all that effective an attack."

"You're right, it's not." Jiraiya steps back from the tree. "But, once you've mastered the third step…" He draws his hand back again, gathering densely compacted chakra into his palm, before pressing it to the tree trunk and carving a hold right into it. The debris is turned into sawdust. And it does it so precisely, so cleanly, that the tree doesn't even fall over, despite one section of the trunk being half gone. "If you can keep that small typhoon the size of your palm, then the energy will be unable to disperse, it will spin faster and faster, and its power will become more and more compressed…and is destructive power will reach its max." He lets the last of his chakra dissipate. "So, there you have it."

Naruto gets a bright grin on his face, then shoves the second balloon into his pocket, focusing all of his energy onto the first one. Ad I watch as he claws at the air around the balloon, spinning his chakra until he clamps his hands down on the balloon, trying to keep it all compressed through what looks like sheer force of will.

Unfortunately, despite his efforts, the balloon becomes rough, the chakra inside spinning out of control, before it explodes in his hands. Nothing but a few pieces of torn latex remain.

Jiraiya looks down at Naruto. "There's no cutting corners here. Get your power and rotation to a hundred percent, and then maintain it." And he watches in amusement, as Naruto starts to silently wage war within himself. "I told you, didn't I? This is an A-Rank technique. It's a highly advanced ninjutsu, kid." Then he shrugs. "Okay, that's enough explaining for today, you can practice on the road."

"I suppose that you expect me to practice on the road as well?" Though that'll be easier said than done, since I've been practicing in a pond for the past few weeks. Communing with water is easier to do when there's water around

Jiraiya grins at me. "No time like the present to wean yourself off that water dependency of yours. You've got a strong enough affinity for water that you should be able to produce water almost from nothing."

My eye twitches. "Yeah, in a few years, maybe. Spitting out water bullets is one thing, but don't expect me to pick up the higher level stuff without at least a puddle around." Nevertheless, I turn to follow him as we head towards our new destination.

"Hold on a minute!" Naruto stays firmly planted where he is. "Do we have to rush? Why can't we just-"

Jiraiya stops in his tracks, turning back around. "We've already wasted enough time waiting for you to recover your strength." And as Naruto sighs, Jiraiya huffs slightly. "There's no guarantee that Tsunade will stay in that town much longer. It's not like she's going to bump into some old acquaintance and start reminiscing over the good old days. So come on, let's go!"

For once, I agree with Jiraiya. "Come on, Naruto, you can just practice while we walk. After all, if you're going to use this in a fight, then it's probably better to get used to using it while you're on the move."

He frowns slightly, then sighs again and starts jogging up to us. "Alright, fine. I guess you've got a point."

I smile wryly. "Of course I do. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

* * *

As the three of us make the trek into town, Naruto fiddling with his balloon a while, the old perv looks solemn. "Tsunade's impatient and quick to anger." Though he doesn't actually pay any attention to us until Naruto knocks himself on his butt by making his balloon explode. "Come on kid, we don't have time for kicking back. If we don't hurry, who knows where that wayward woman will scamper off to next."

"Listen you Pervy Sage!" Naruto jumps onto his feet, pointing rather comically at Jiraiya. "That's no way to talk to an apprentice who's working his butt off!"

"Oh, zip it. Just calm down, will ya? Tsunade's the priority here." And he just walks right off.

"Damn it…who does he think he is?" Naruto growls angrily, or maybe just impatiently beside me.

I sigh. "I don't know, but I'm guessing that we'll find out eventually. So far, I've listed writer, pervert, and toad sage. But who knows what else that guy's deal is…"

"No kidding…" Naruto deadpans as he no doubt tries to come up with something else. "Just who IS this guy?"

Looking at the staircase in front of us, I shrug. "Well, the longer we hang around him, the more likely we are to find out. Besides, I suppose that he IS kinda teaching us, even if he's not doing a great job of it…"

"You got that right." Naruto readjusts his backpack and starts climbing the stairs. "Let's go…we gotta find this Tsunade lady so that she can heal Sasuke, right?"

For a little while, Sasuke's plight had entirely slipped my mind. "Right…" Now, I feel rather guilty about it. And not only that, but there's the issue of Itachi as well…

As we walk, I feel oddly…cold for some reason. Goosebumps are scattered across my skin, and I can't really hear all that much. I take a deep breath letting it out slowly, but it just makes me feel heavy.

 _What am I doing here…? I'm supposed to exist to protect people. But what good am I if I can't even do that?_

A heavy weight pressed down on my chest, making it increasingly difficult to breathe. It hurts, but…I don't really feel like I care.

Then, I feel a shaking, and a voice loud in my ear. "Ciara! Wake up!"

Blinking, I see a head of bright blond hair before me. "…Naruto…?"

He sighs with relief. "What happened? You scared me. You were totally zoned out, and just stopped walking all of a sudden. And why are you crying?"

"I did? Wait, what?" I hadn't realized at all that I'd stopped walking. And as I raise a hand to my cheek, it feels wet. Weird. "Uh…sorry, I guess I just got a bit lost in my own head, I don't even know why I'm crying." A bit lost is putting it mildly, but Naruto doesn't need to know that. I take the opportunity to wipe away the incomprehensible tears. "Did we lose the old man?"

Naruto shakes his head. "Nah, he's just in there." He points into the building in front of us. "Come on, we should probably go inside."

"Yeah…" I shake my head quickly, clearing it of the cobwebs that had formed in my daze. That was…weird, to put it mildly. I've never felt anything quite like it. And honestly, I hope to never feel anything like it again. It was…unsettling.

As we step into what looks like a gambling hall, Naruto starts fiddling with his balloon again. I look around absently, taking in the scene, nd noticing Jiraiya up at the counter. He must be asking them about Tsunade.

Naruto, on the other hand, is being harassed by one of the gambling house employees. Though the poor old guy has no idea just how focused Naruto is on his training. He's not gonna put that balloon down until it explodes!

About two minutes later, explode it does. In fact, it explodes so powerfully that it sends wind blasting all through the gambling house, and I could swear that he knocked a few of the patrons over.

And I…laugh, doubling over and holding my stomach as I shake with mirth. "Jeez, Naruto…are you trying to blow this place down!?"

He pouts at me. "No, I wasn't!"

"You could have fooled me!" I indulge my own laughter for just a bit longer. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure that balloon is shot."

"Well, duh…" Naruto groans as he pulls another balloon out of his pocket and blows it up. "Now…just gotta try again…"

Jiraiya walks over and taps us each on the head. "Alright, squirts, time for us to get going."

"Finally…" I walk right out the door without waiting for either of them. I have no interest in gambling whatsoever.

Which is why the next hour or so is complete hell for me, as we visit what seems like every arcade and casino in the town. And at first, it's not so bad…until I get a sinking feeling as Naruto wanders over to a lottery stand.

I follow him over, getting a bad feeling in my stomach as the old lady gives him a scratch card. "Naruto…is that a good idea?"

He shrugs. "I dunno, but it looks fun."

I eye the card. It has three scratch pads on it, and you're only allowed to scratch off one. And since Naruto seems to want to do it, I'll humor him. "Scratch the one on the left."

"Huh?" He blinks at me bemusedly. "The left?" He looks back down at the card, then tilts his head. "Okay." And he goes about scratching at the circle.

The old lady looks at the card as Naruto scratches away, and when he's done, she smiles brightly at him. "Well, dearie, looks like you've won!" She reaches behind the counter and takes out a rather thick wad of bills. "Here's your prize!"

Instantly, Naruto's face brightens, and he tugs his walled out of his pocket, eagerly stuffing the money into it. "Thanks lady!" And as he jogs back towards the old perv, he just stares at his fat wallet. "You're way cuter when you're chubby! Yes you are!" He rubs it against his face, looking absolutely ecstatic.

Suddenly, Jiraiya stops, and he calls us out. "Hey Naruto, Ciara, come on, this way!"

"Huh?" Naruto turns around in slight confusion, before his grin returns in full force. "Okay!"

I raise an eyebrow at the old perv. "And where exactly are we going?"

Jiraiya points off down the street. "There's a castle off that way that we should be able to climb. It's a good idea to get a good look at the city from some high ground."

That…makes sense. "Okay." I follow along behind him as Naruto jogs to catch up.

When he does finally catch up, Naruto looks around curiously. "Hold on a minute, where's this castle you were talking about!?"

Jiraiya's eyes go wide. "It's gone!"

"Gone?" Now that makes absolutely no sense at all. "What do you mean it's gone?"

He jumps up onto a roof to get a better look, so Naruto and I both follow him up, looking in the same direction. And there's the castle all right. It's not gone, but someone or something definitely managed to bring it crashing down. It's nothing but a pile of rubble now.

"So…what happened? It's like a typhoon hit." Naruto is right on that count. Except that it must of been one very localized typhoon, because there's no damage to the rest of the town.

Conveniently, some townspeople come racing down the street, screaming about running for their lives. And Jiraiya is not one to pass up the opportunity to figure out what's going on. "Hey, you! What's happening!? Tell me, what are you running from!?" He manages to stop one of them in his tracks.

"If you're smart, you'll run too! There's a monster up there!" The man looks suitably panicked to be saying those words.

"A monster?" Naruto glances at me, but I've got no idea what it could be either. Or rather, I've got too many ideas, and can't possibly pick one.

"Now, just calm down." Jiraiya's tone becomes almost…commanding in his search for answers. "What kind of monster? What do you mean?"

"A snake!" Oh no… "A huge snake! It crushed the castle without even trying! I'm outta here!"

"Hey, wait!" Naruto starts running along the roof after the man. "How big was the snake!? Our village was attacked by one too!" But the man just keeps on running. "Wait, don't go! I know something about big snakes!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya stops him in his tracks. "You two, come on! This could be the same snake, so I'd like a closer look at this monster."

The three of us take off running, heading for the demolished castle. Unfortunately, I see no sighs that this giant snake is still around. So I can't tell if it's one of the snakes that attacked the village.

By the time the old perv jumps down from the roof to investigate the site of a collapsed wall, there's no one around to question. "Looks like we're too late…"

Naruto jumps down just after me, but rushes to the wall in a half panicked, half curious state. "Did the snake do that too?"

Jiraiya doesn't even bother to answer the question. "Let's go, you two. We're not going to find Tsunade here."

"Not again…" Naruto grumbles audibly. "I was hoping you'd forgotten about her." I guess that means he's getting tired of running around this place.

I roll my eyes. "The sooner we find her, the better. Then we can go home and you can train properly." And by properly, I mean in a place where I've got all of my medical supplies, our own beds, and training grounds better suited for this kind of work than doing it while on the move from town to town, and having to stop the serious training once inside the town limits.

"No kidding…" Naruto drops his shoulders and slumps over. "I just wanna get back to training…"

"Soon enough, Naruto…soon enough." Though I wish that it were sooner than that, because Jiraiya seems to think that it's a great idea to drag us around to every place that caters to the entertainment needs of adults.

Meaning…boring, boring, boring, and more boring.


	58. Not What I Expected

**Sorry for taking so long with the chapter, I got held up with assignments and midterms, and then I got sick with an infection that I'm still trying to get over. Thankfully, the fever has gotten down to the point where I'm no longer passing out as soon as I lie down, so I can actually sit down and get some writing done.**

 **Well, here's another chapter, and I've dropped a hint for the future in it. Let's see if you guys can find it. I'm still debating it at this point, but I'm pretty sure that it's a plot bunny with some promise.**

* * *

Long after the sun has set, Naruto's complaining starts back up again. "This is getting ridiculous. How many places are you gonna drag us to? I'm starting to think this old lady doesn't even exist.

"Hm…" Thankfully, Jiraiya finally stops. Because my feet are seriously starting to ache. "Well, in the meantime, we'll get a bite to eat here."

"Huh?" Naruto turns to look at the kinda shady establishment. "Hey! What are ya talking about!? This is a tavern!"

"Yeah, so what?" Jiraiya sees nothing wrong with it, though that's probably because he's an old fart.

"Are ya trying to be a bad influence on us?" He spreads out his hands. "Hello! We're underage!"

Jiraiya's eye twitches. "You idiot, nobody is making you do anything. Just have a snack and stay out of the grown-ups' way."

The perv goes on inside, so I just pat Naruto on the shoulder. "It'll be fine, these places serve food. As long as we don't touch the alcohol, there should be no problem. I mean, if we're allowed to go out and fight to the death with people at the age of twelve, going into a tavern shouldn't really be a big deal."

But as Naruto relents and the two of us walk inside, Jiraiya freezes in place. I hold my breath, waiting for him to say or do something. Suddenly, he poses and points. "Tsunade!"

A blond woman with amber eyes and a purple diamond on her forehead stands up. "Jiraiya!? What the…why are you here!?"

Jiraiya walks towards this Tsunade woman. "Finally, I've been looking everywhere for you."

The two of us follow Jiraiya to the booth, where we follow suit as he sits down opposite Tsunade and her friend. Luckily, I get the outermost seat, which means that if I feel like running, there's nothing stopping me.

Still, this Tsunade is not what I was expecting. From the way that Jiraiya talked about her, I was expecting her to look a lot older. At least twenty years older. Well…a ninja must see through deception.

When the waiter comes around, Naruto orders some dumplings, some rice, and some fish, whereas I go straight for the gyoza. And since my food is the last to arrive, along with Naruto's fish, I amuse myself by watching the pet pig, at least I think it's a pet if the jacket and necklace on it are any indications. I doubt anyone would dress up their food that way.

It's only after several rounds of drinks that the blond lady, Tsunade, breaks the silence. "It's like a reunion. All the old faces coming back at the same time."

Jiraiya pours her the last of the sake, before downing his own cup. "You mean Orochimaru…so what happened?"

"Oh, nothing very much." Tsunade's voice is light, but the piercing glare she sent her companion's way tells me that there's a lot she's not going to say. "We said hello, that's about it.

As Tsunade draws out a deck of cards and starts shuffling them, Jiraiya passes what's left of his food to Naruto, who then passes it to me. Well, it's more food, so I pick up the meat skewer and start snacking on it as well. Once the meat is gone, I use it to stab at the gyoza and bring each individual dumpling to my mouth, foregoing my fingers, as well as a fork.

Finally, Tsunade stops shuffling and puts the deck down. "Well then, why have you been looking for me?"

Jiraiya cutes the deck. "I'll cut right to the chase." Then, he splices the cards together, mixing them all up before placing the deck back down. "Tsunade. In its wisdom, the village has decided to name you as the Fifth Hokage."

An instant later, my brain has registered enough to understand why Naruto is nearly choking on a fish beside me. So, in an effort to prevent my best friend from dying by asphyxiation, I wrap my arms around his stomach and squeeze, knocking my shoulders against his upper back to try and knock the fish out of his mouth.

When he spits the fish back onto his plate, he leans back and I loosen my grip. "Do you have any clue what's going on?" His voice is a whisper, for my ears only."

All I can do is shake my head. "Nope, I'm as in the dark as you are." Though I have a feeling, as Tsunade deals a hand of cards for both herself and Jiraiya, that we're about to find out what the hell this little trip is really about.

It makes sense for there to be another motive, though. I doubt that Jiraiya is all that emotionally invested in Sasuke, so he wouldn't just bring a powerful medic back for the sake of one person. But…if she's been nominated to take up the seat of Hokage. Well, that changes things quite a bit.

Jiraiya looks up from his cards. "You've heard about the Third Hokage." It's a statement, not a question. Of course, I expect that the entire nation has heard about the old man's death by now. In fact, I wouldn't doubt the information spreading to all of the other nations by this point. News like that doesn't travel slowly.

Tsunade just picks up her cards, her face blank. "It was Orochimaru's doing, right? I heard about it. In fact, he told me himself."

"Hold on a second!" Naruto finally can't hold himself back any longer. "You're saying he's the one who killed the old man!? Who is this Orochimaru guy!?"

Jiraiya doesn't even flinch. "He's one of the Sannin, like Tsunade here, and your's truly." I frown at that. _Sannin…three ninjas, a team? A squad? Were the three of them a squad or something? Like the three-an teams they split us up into?_

"But then, why!? The Sannin are all from the Leaf Village, right!? Why'd he do it!?" Naruto's mouth works a mile a minute, and honestly, the questions are starting to drive me a little crazy too. Because I'm just as curious.

I frown. "I think the bigger question is why he betrayed the village in the first place." Well, and why that creepy old snake wanted to snatch me during the Chunin Exams. Not that I would have let him.

Tsunade eyes us flatly. "Who are these brats you've got with you?"

The old perv doesn't even look at us. "The blond kid is Naruto Uzumaki. The girl is Ciara Shiryugu."

Tsunade looks at the both of us, her eyes flicking between us as they widen in surprise. Of course, Naruto gets on his feet and really gives her something to be surprised about. "Okay, wait a second! I haven't finished yet! There's something about this I'm not getting!"

"Naruto, sit down, you're making a scene." I glance around and eye the people staring at us because of Naruto's yelling.

"No way, I gotta know! This guy, you know he's the one who killed the Hokage! What have you done about it!?" He glares at Jiraiya, expecting the old man to answer his outburst. "He's a Sannin, he's one of you guys! Why's he still walking around!? Why haven't you caught him!? And oh yeah…" He points directly at a rather peeved Tsunade. "What's the deal with her being the Fifth Hokage!?"

Jiraiya continues to stare at his cards, looking both focused and bored. It almost reminds me of Shikamaru in a way."Naruto, sit down and shut up."

My best friend stubbornly holds his ground, even though it's really not the time to do so. "Definitely not!"

Jiraiya turns a stern glare on Naruto. "Sit down."

Naruto freezes at the look that Jiraiya shoots him, so I grab Naruto's sleeve and pull him back down into his seat. "If you just stay quiet, maybe you'll get some of the answers you want by listening…" I really don't want Naruto to cause any more of a scene. I'm embarrassed enough as is.

Jiraiya doesn't dignify it with a reply, simply taking three of his cards, putting them down, and drawing three new ones. "I'll say it once again. The Leaf Village has made its decision. They have chosen you to be the Fifth Hokage. So, what's your answer? Do you accept it Tsunade?"

She remains silent for quite a while, obviously mulling the whole thing over. It's a pretty big decision, after all. She's being offered leadership of one of the five biggest hidden villages. That's not something to be taken lightly.

Still, Jiraiya presses for an answer. "Well, I'm waiting. What do you say?"

Naruto groans, holding his head. "Argh, I don't understand any of this."

I roll my eyes and clap my hand over his mouth. "If you'd let them finish, then maybe you would."

But before Naruto can retort, or even pry my hand from his mouth, Tsunade throws her cards on the table, face-down. "Impossible." _The cards? Or…_ "I decline."

Naruto looks up in shock, and even I have to gape a little. I didn't expect her to turn it down nearly so fast, if at all. I mean, what possible reason could she have for turning down the seat of Hokage?

Jiraiya, on the other hand, just smiles. "You know, it's kind of funny. That rings a bell. I remember you saying those very words the first and only time I ever asked you out." And…now I feel like smacking my head against the wall. Repeatedly. Because knowing how he got turned down is really not something I want to know.

Finally, Naruto rips my hand from his face and turns to Jiraiya. "Would somebody tell me what's going on!? What the heck are we doing here!? You said we were gonna bring her back to the village to cure Sasuke and Kakashi-Sensei! Then you pull this stuff about making her Hokage!? Then she goes and refuses it!" After airing his grievances, he just goes right back to making incoherent noise that I feel the great need to silence once more with my hand.

"Don't worry, Naruto, she knows she can't refuse." Jiraiya's words make me blink in confusion. Wait, why can't she refuse? "There can be no one else. There was no one who contributed more to the Leaf's victory in the Great War. She combines unrivaled skills as a warrior with the ability to heal others. What's more, she is the granddaughter of the very first Hokage. So in heritage and abilities, she is the clear and only choice to the the Fifth Hokage. And once she accepts her destiny, which she will, then she'll have to come back with us to the village, and there, heal your friends. You see, it's all been very carefully thought out by the highest councils of the village." Then, he glances at us. "No offense, but it's not something that a couple of underage genin are expected to understand."

Now it makes sense to me, including why he's doing things this way. Though I don't particularly care for the jab at our, well, my intelligence. "So, by fulfilling the first purpose, all of the others fall neatly into place…we get a new leader, get back a powerful warrior, and return a master of the healing arts to the village, strengthening it three ways in one move."

Tsunade raises an eyebrow at me. "Well, it looks like only one of them is an idiot."

I glare slightly at her. "And I'd appreciate you not talking about us like that. Naruto's better at other things, I'm more than capable of being the brain between us. His creativity is better used in combat, anyway."

She smirks, not wanting to let it go. "You're slipping, Jiraiya, these apprentices aren't anything like your last one. One's got a smart mouth, but the other one's a fool. Funny-looking, too.

Jiraiya grins. "Well, to be fair, it'd be hard for anyone to measure up to that standard. The Fourth Hokage showed all the signs of becoming the greatest ninja in generations. Brimming with talent and natural ability. Brilliant, popular, and to top it off, nearly as handsome as his teacher."

"Oh sure, but all of that didn't save him from dying young." Tsunade scoffs. "Throwing his life away all for the sake of the village. Money's one thing, a life's another. To risk your life against all the odds, that's a sucker's bet." She smiles sourly at the thought. "My grandfather and his successor, they were also willing to die to defend the village. Well, they're both dead, alright. And the village is no safer than it ever was. Even it's divine protection is now gone."

Jiraiya's eyes narrow. "Sounds to me like you've changed, Tsunade. I don't know what's happened to make you like this, but to say such things out loud?"

The woman chuckles. "Don't forget, I'm not as young as I look. The years have taught me a great deal." She glances at her cards, as she's been doing between every exchange. "Sarutobi-Sensei too, he should have known better. Did he expect trying to be a hero at his age would be easy?" She finishes looking at her cards, then puts them down. "Playing at Hokage? Count me out, it's a fool's game."

"That does it!" Naruto launches himself across the table as I make a grab for him. Fortunately, Jiraiya catches him by the back of his jacket. "Let me go! Stop it! Let me at her!"

"Stop it, that's enough. People are looking." Jiraiya just holds Naruto in place above the table. And it's kind of impressive how steady he's able to keep his hand, especially with Naruto suspended above the table. Tsunade, though, has to lean back slightly in order to keep herself well out of Naruto's reach.

Once Naruto is let down on the table, he growls. "I'm not going to just sit there and let her make fun of the old man! No way! I don't care is she is a lady, I'll knock that cynical sneer off her face!"

 _Great…she got him all worked up, and I'm going to have to spend the rest of the night calming him down. Perfect…_ I put my head down on the table, sighing wearily. "This is not how I wanted to end the day."

Then, I look up to see Tsunade putting her foot on the table and looking Naruto right in the eye "Are you challenging me? You've got guts, if nothing else. Let's take this outside, kid."

Tsunade's companion sighs as she gets out of her seat, and the two feisty blonds lead the way outside, with me trailing behind with the companion and the pig. "You do know that one way or another, this probably isn't going to be pretty, right?"

"Yeah…" She collects the pig and we follow them outside to see Tsunade and Naruto standing about fifteen feet apart.

Tsunade smirks at Naruto's determined face. "One of the Legendary Sannin, taking on a snotty-nosed genin? I oughta be ashamed of myself."

"Who're ya calling snotty?" Naruto sinks into a combat stance, more than ready to start fighting. Though I'm pretty sure that fighting is the last thing that the two of them should be doing, especially in a tight street in the middle of a town. I mean, for the sake of public safety, we should at least take it half a mile out of town.

Tsunade holds out her hand, showing only a single finger. And at it, Jiraiya rolls his eyes. "Oh, stop trying to show off."

"You see this?" Tsunade draws her hand back. "One finger. It's all I'm gonna need to take you down."

"Please, don't…" Her assistant looks at her worriedly, and almost looks ready to chew off her fingernails at the sight.

Tsunade ignores her and keeps her eyes on Naruto. "Well, what're you waiting for, kid?"

Naruto twitches, his voice becoming a growl. "Don't ever underestimate me!" And he takes off at a run, heading straight for Tsunade. Well, he never was one to prefer to take the stealthy or subtle approach.

He tosses shuriken at her, before charging in with a kunai in hand. But Tsunade just flicking it out of his hand and into her fingers slashing it upwards and not even cutting his skin as she sends his headband flying with a sharp clang. Then, just as he recovers from stumbling backwards, she goes in to flick his forehead, and I spring into action, racing behind him as her finger connects and he goes flying.

Naruto careens across the ground and straight into my arms, causing us to roll over a few times before I regain my balance and flip over, holding him tightly as I skid to a stop about thirty feet away from the three adults.

Naruto grunts and gets back to his feet, grumbling. "A flick to the forehead? I'll show her…" Then, he freezes as the kunai falls from the sky and lands in front of him, along with his headband.

"Hey, kid!" Naruto and I both look up to see Tsunade looking rather relaxed. "One question before you pass out. Tell me, what makes you so touchy about Hokage?"

Naruto's glare lessens slightly. So, I pat him on the back to encourage him. And he opens his mouth. "Its because unlike you, that's my goal. Just watch, someday, I'll be Hokage. Remember this…" His glare turns into a determined grin. "To be Hokage, that is my dream."

I laugh at my friend's declaration. "And who knows. Maybe, once you're Hokage, I'll be one of your ANBU. Think I'd be any good at it?" Itachi and Shisui were in the ANBU, and so was Kakashi. I think that with some practice, I could make them proud.

Naruto grins even wider. "Yeah, sounds great." Then, Tsunade's expression becomes sad for some reason, and Naruto's eyes widen, his fingers twitching. He's going to go for it. So, he gathers the needed chakra in his hands, and charges forward with a glowing ball spiraling between his palms.

To stop the attack, Tsunade uses her strength to make a huge crack in the ground to drive the chakra sphere into. Obviously, she knows what it is, or she wouldn't have reacted nearly so quickly, and so effectively. Of course, if she used to be Jiraiya's teammate, then it should come as no surprise that she recognizes the technique that Jiraiya's been teaching Naruto.

Annoyingly enough, the impact sends Naruto flying back in such a way that he gets caught in the crack, unable to extract himself. "Damn it…" I jump over to him and stand with my feet planted on either side, hanging my hands down in order to grasp his arms and pull him out. "Unbelievable…you just charged right in without a second thought, and you got yourself into this kind of mess…"

"Yeah, yeah, just pull me out already!" He reaches up with his own arms, and we lock our grips around each other's wrists as I pull him up and out of the crack, allowing him to roll his hips out and get himself on his knees on one side. With him out of the crack, I join him.

Tsunade looks over to the old perv disapprovingly. "Jiraiya, are you the one who taught this little kid the Rasengan?"

"Well, of course I did, I'm his teacher, aren't I? What of it?" He says it so utterly unabashedly that I almost want to smack him over the head for it.

Tsunade shakes her head and snorts derisively. "Hah, you and the Fourth Hokage are the only ones who can use that jutsu. What's the point of teaching it to someone who can never master it? You old fool! Giving him false hopes like that, filling his head with stupid ideas…making him think he could actually be Hokage someday!"

Naruto jumps back onto his feet. "I'll show you whose stupid! Just wait, just wait! Gimme just three days and I'll have that jutsu down flat!"

The old bag snorts. "Watch what ya say, kid, I might just hold you to it."

"Heh, I said it, and I never go back on my word." Naruto smiles proudly. "That's my nindo, my ninja way!"

My best friend…while most of the time, I admire his guts and determination, right now, I feel like groaning and banging my head against the ground. Again. He's still recovering from all of the intense training he's been doing so far, and now he wants to go and put himself through even more intense training just to master the technique to prove something to this old lady? "My healing skills are going to get a serious workout…"

Tsunade appears completely nonplussed. "Well then, care to make a bet on it?"

"A bet?" Naruto's eyes widen, and he tilts his spiky head slightly.

She nods. "I'll give you one week. If you can master that jutsu by then, I'll admit I'm wrong and that you're worthy of becoming Hokage. I'll even throw in my necklace." She points to a rather pretty crystal necklace hanging just above what can only be described as watermelons stuffed into human skin.

"Lady Tsunade, no! No, you don't really mean that!" For some reason, Shizune, her companion, is getting rather worked up over her betting that necklace.

Naruto shrugs. "Ah, you can keep it. I'm not really into jewelry."

"You numbskull." Jiraiya shakes his head, looking like he wants to slap Naruto over his. "That necklace belonged to the First Hokage, himself. There are only two like it in the world. Why, that little thing is worth three gold mines, and the mountains on top of them."

Naruto's jaw drops, and then, his eyes glimmer as he looks at the necklace. "Lady, you've got yourself a bet." _Well, so much for me needing to calm him down tonight. Looks like he managed to get calm all by himself._

"Alright, however…" And now, her voice makes my stomach sink, because bets are never a good idea, and Jiraiya did say that she's a compulsive gambler. "If you don't master it in a week, you lose and admit I was right. And I get the money in Froggy." She holds up Naruto's packed wallet, though I'm not entirely sure when she swiped it in the first place.

 _Note to self…Tsunade is an excellent pickpocket._

"Ah! Not Gama! Wait a second!" Naruto fiddles around, searching his pockets, even though his wallet is clearly over there, sitting in Tsunade's hand. It's not going to just magically reappear in his pockets.

Seeing as I don't want to get anywhere near her, it takes only a few hand signs and a deep breath to launch Gama out of Tsunade's hand, and send him flying towards me. Reaching out my hands, I catch the fat frog between my fingers. "Gotcha."

When I hold it out for Naruto to take, he smiles. "Thanks a bunch, Ciara."

I stretch my arms over my head and let out a loud yawn. "Now, if there's no more fights to get into, I'd really like to go to bed. We've been training and walking around for a whole month, and if you're going to intensify your training, then I'm going to need a lot of sleep. Healing you is going to be a right pain in the ass."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Naruto trails along with me as I head off to find a hotel. And after a minute, Jiraiya catches up with us, directing us int one that I nearly missed, and sending the two of us up with a key.

Naruto and I haul our packs up to the room with two beds in it, connected to another room with a single. It's good, I guess. At least no one has to share. I just change as quickly as I can into my pajamas, before crashing immediately on one of the beds, letting Naruto be the one to tuck me in for a change.

It's nights like these that I'm glad that in the absence of danger, I can sleep like a rock.


	59. Sannin Reunion

**Nicely done, AngelSayori, you caught the plot bunny. And depending on what happens in the future, I may very well be milking that one.**

 **And a warning, this chapter is going to be a rather long one as I'm trying to wrap up this arc quickly. But, I also wanted to give Ciara the chance to beat up Kabuto a little. I also wanted to torture her a little, but she's a tough little squirt.**

* * *

The first day of Naruto's week long training stint, I sit down next to the water, playing with making it adhere to my hands, while watching Naruto shoot off Rasengan after Rasengan. He smashes the attack against all of the trees in the area, almost burning spiral-shaped holes into the trees.

And, like I've done every day since starting my training with water style ninjutsu, I take the water sticking to my hands and run it, as well as the chakra making it stick, through my hair, applying the chakra to it, but especially to the roots, infusing it into the base of the 's relaxing, but also very good for my concentration.

Eventually, I move on to using the trees on the other side of the small river as target practice for my water bullets. I'm starting to get rather good at them, I've noticed. But considering that I've got time to burn just waiting for Naruto to burn out, it should be no surprise that I'm getting better at them.

About mid-afternoon, my earlier predictions come true, and Naruto collapses, his body trembling from the exertion of molding and maintaining chakra. So I head over to sit next to him, take a look at his hands, and sigh. "You know that you're going to end up causing yourself permanent damage at this rate, right?"

Naruto stares up at me, grimacing. "I have to get this down in a week. I've got no time to relax."

"I know, I know, it's that bet, right?" I was there after all, I heard the whole thing. "It's not going to do you much good if you kill yourself trying to get there though. So please, just try to pace yourself a little. It'll help in the long run, trust me." I touch his hands with mine, running healing chakra through them in order to stop the trembling. I would give him painkillers, but I'm not entirely certain that they would work.

Naruto glares up at me slightly, before the expression softens, and he slumps a little. "Alright, fine, I'll take a bit of a break. But I'm gonna start training again in twenty minutes."

"Alright, fine." I can live with that kind of compromise. "But let me heal you first. The last thing we need is your nerves frying like bacon and eggs."

That makes Naruto laugh as I run my hands over his arms, the glowing increasing to dive in deeper into his sore muscles. At this rate, I'm actually worried about him causing permanent damage to his nervous system, but I know that if I try to stop him from training, he'll throw a tantrum.

After he rests for twenty whole minutes, with me healing him the entire time, he gets right back to work, folding and molding the chakra between his hands as he works on compression, the last step of the Rasengan's form.

Luckily, I had the foresight to bring not only food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner out with us, but also the sleeping bags from our traveling packs. With this bet spurring him on, I figured that Naruto wouldn't want to go back to the hotel for the night, so I set up our sleeping bags close to one another, and get a fire set up as the sun goes down.

Waving Naruto over as he starts to seriously have trouble standing, I raise up a couple of cooked fish. "Hey, come on Naruto, it's time to eat, and then we can go to bed!" Best to get him to actually rest for a while before he starts another full-day marathon of hurling incomplete jutsu at poor, defenseless trees.

He looks over at me, then up into the sky, and sighs. "Alright, I'm coming." He plods over, falling butt-first into his sleeping bag, before reaching with shaky hands for the two fish I hold out to him.

As he eats, I sit behind him, massaging his shoulders and running healing chakra into his system. "Naruto, I admire your stamina and determination, I really do, but one of these days, it's going to be the death of you." Though right now, I'm doing my very best to prevent that from happening.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." He bites into the fish, chewing noisily as I continue the massage, trying not to hurt him. "At least you're getting good haling practice out of this, right?"

"Yeah, I am…" I can't deny that. "Does this feel good?" I press down into the pressure points of his upper body, trying to loosen up the muscles there.

Immediately, he relaxes, as though all of his bones just disappear. "Oooh…yeah…that feels good…" He just slumps there, barely able to raise his food to his mouth. "How did you do that?"

I press a little lighter into the muscles of his back, kneading out the knots there. "Pressure points, it's part of my studies into anatomy. I just had to press them the right way, and your muscles started loosening up. I just can't press them too much, or your body will release a bunch of hormones that'll keep you awake instead of sending you to sleep." The last thing I need is to stimulate the endorphins of the most hyper ninja in the village. That would be a whole new kind of disaster.

Once I finish the massage, I help Naruto slip into his sleeping bag, and I pull mine closer so that the two of us can reach out and touch each other, just in case one of us is subjected to a nightmare. It's the best way to keep the both of us safe.

Our sleeping bags pushed close together, and the light of the fire slowly flickering and dying, I smile at Naruto, and he smiles back as the two of us pass into sleep. A wonderful sleep that remains completely undisturbed by either of our nightmares.

* * *

This continues day after day, and each night, Naruto collapses from near total exhaustion. Of course, I use my medical ninjutsu to keep him going for as long as I can, and there's that inhuman stamina of his that certainly helps. But at the end of the day, even he has a limit. And it's usually quite dark out by the time that limit is reached.

Luckily for him, I'm around to feed him and make the fire, and patch him up, otherwise he would probably die of starvation, the cold, or overuse of his chakra. Honestly, he could do a lot more to make sure he doesn't kill himself. Or…he could just not push himself so far.

Then again, he wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't.

* * *

The night before the bet is up, Naruto collapses. And this time, it seems to be worse than usual. He tries to get up, but unlike all of the other times, he just no longer has the strength to stand.

Which is how I find myself by his side, hoisting him by the arm over my shoulder and dragging him back to our makeshift campsite. I place him down on his sleeping bag, tucking him in as I start tending to the wounds and other damage he's racked up today.

Then, I feel another chakra approaching, and I turn my head to see Shizune racing towards us. "Naruto, Ciara, are you two alright!?"

I blink at her, then look around at the many destroyed trees. _Oh. She must be worried about his condition because of the condition of his 'opponents'._ "Yes, we're fine." Well, sort of fine. Naruto's hands are wrecked, the right one worse than the left. "I'm tending to him, like usual."

She sits down next to me, examining his wounds. "Oh no! He's-" She touches his hands. "We need to get him back to town and back to Lady Tsunade, right away!"

I eye her warily as she starts touching Naruto. "I've only just met the two of you, so please don't take this the wrong way but…why should I trust her with Naruto's health?"

"What!?" Her eyes widen and she glares at me slightly. "What are you talking about, Lady Tsunade is-"

"Yes, yes, a famous healer, I heard that part." I wave my hand, cutting her off. "But I haven't see that for myself. All I've see her do is eat, drink, make a stupid bet that's making my friend train until he drops, and act like a miserable old lady. And whatever her sob story is doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not I can trust her to touch Naruto and not provoke me into action." I keep my hands protectively on him, my eyes trained on her. "So? Can I trust her not to hurt my best friend?"

Shizune's eyes widen, and then she relaxes, growing quiet, and nods. "Yes, you can trust her not to hurt your friend."

I can see no outright deception in her face, which I good, because I've seen more than enough of that lately. "Okay, then you carry him back, and I'll pack up camp." Best to divide it up like that for the sake of speed. "I'll meet you back at the hotel."

She nods, scooping Naruto into her arms and taking off at a rather surprising speed, considering those heels. Meanwhile, I busy myself with rolling the sleeping bags back up and putting out the campfire, as well as collecting up the little things here and there that have gotten scattered about over the past week.

Twenty minutes later sees me sitting by Naruto's bedside, with Shizune waiting in the hall to head Tsunade off and bring her in here. But rather than waiting for her to come in and heal him, I set about reversing as much of the damage by myself as possible, breaking into my stash of ointments and antiseptics to treat the various cuts and burns that his harsh training is inflicting on him.

Then, the door opens, and a familiar couple of blond ponytails enters the room. "So, you're here."

She eyes me with a slight glare. "And what do you think you're doing?"

Not stopping, I continue to wind bandages carefully around Naruto's hands. "What does it look like? I'm treating my friend." Once the bandages are one, my hands glow a little, trying to stimulate a little more cell regeneration.

Shizune watches anxiously from the end of the bed. "How is he doing?"

Still eyeing me, Tsunade walks over to stand next to me, and looks down at Naruto's injuries, her eyes doing what looks like a rather thorough evaluation of his physical health. "He's collapsed from exhaustion. And his right hand is severely burned from concentrated chakra. He's out of it. He won't wake up until the day after tomorrow at the earliest." She shakes her head. "Well, Jiraiya was right about me…to think I've sunk so low that I've bet against a kid."

I scoff lightly. "Well I'll bet against you on that one. He'll be up tomorrow, half out of his mind with panic because she's wasting training time." If I know Naruto as well as I think I do, that's as close a guess as I can reasonably make.

She glares at me slightly. "And now a kid wants to make a bet with me. Wonderful."

"Only if it has to do with my best friend's incredible recovery rates." I take hold of his hand again, pouring more chakra into it. "Besides, I'll be here to look after him. He won't stay down for long if I'm his medic."

Tsunade takes one last look at him, before leaving the room, Shizune trailing along behind her. I hear some frantic shouting in the hall, before the voices disappear into another room. It sounds as though Shizune is not very happy with something Tsunade did, or is going to do.

Maybe it has to do with Orochimaru and that meeting that Jiraiya tried to talk about with Tsunade.

 _Orochimaru…_ I squeeze Naruto's less injured hand tightly. _That snake man…just what was he after anyway? Why is he so interested in Sasuke, and why did he corner me that night?_

 _Oh well, it's not like I'll get the answers by just sitting here._ Standing up, I open the door, planning on getting something to eat. That much healing can really take it out of me, especially every day for a week straight. I need something to pump my energy back up.

But when I make it about fifteen feet down the hall, I find Shizune lying there in a crumpled heap. _Shizune? What happened?_ Though seeing as she's unconscious, I'll have to wait for answers. So, despite her being a whole lot taller than me, and probably twice my weight, I pull her onto my back and drag her back to our room, dumping her gently onto the free bed.

Locking the door securely, and making sure that the windows are slid closed and locked as well, I climb onto Naruto's bed, curling around him protectively as I drift to sleep.

* * *

Predictably, I wake up to the sound of Naruto's voice. Guess I was right about him waking up sooner than Tsunade expected. "Ciara, hey, wake up!" He shakes me slightly. "What's going on? Why is that Shizune lady in our room?"

I groan and turn over. "I don't know…I found her in the hallway unconscious. Ask her what happened, not me." After all, I want answers too. But it's way too early for this shit.

So, Naruto hops over to the other bed and leans over her. "Hey, what the heck are you doing here?"

Shizune stirs slightly, opening her eyes. "Naruto? I-" Then, she shoots up in bed. "Naruto! What time is it!? What day is it today!? What day!? What time!?"

Naruto leans back, a little alarmed. "It's…Monday morning? Right?" He looks back to me for the answer. Which, of course, is a pillow to the face. I hate Monday mornings. He grumbles slightly. "Yep, that means it's Monday morning. Why? What is it?"

"It's amazing…are you sure you're feeling alright? You were supposed to be out of it for two full days at least." Shizune sounds truly astonished. Which, of course, means that she didn't trust my judgment when I told them how long Naruto would be out.

So, I sit up and rub at my eyes. "See, I told you so. I win the bet. Naruto woke up right on schedule." Then, I toss another pillow at the back of his head. "And it's Monday morning, so could the two of you try not to be annoying? I hate Mondays…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Naruto sits back on his toes. "And as for two days in bed, not a chance. No matter how beat up I get, just give me a good night's sleep and I'm right back at the top of my game. Besides, I've got a date to keep with that rotten old witch, Tsunade. Today's the day I wipe that smirk off her face!"

Shizune's eyes wide. "So, you've mastered the jutsu!?"

"Ah…" Naruto's smile turns into a grimace. "No, not completely. But…close enough, so I'll just wing it, I'll be fine."

Shizune laughs, before grimacing herself. Then, she staggers to her feet and makes a beeline for the sliding windows, unlatching them and throwing them open. "Stay here you two, you hear me!?" But as soon as she makes to go out, she's stopped in her tracks by a flying kunai. "What in the world!?"

"What is it?" Naruto opens the windows wider, poking his head out to see. Then, he jumps right out the window. "Old man!"

I blink bemusedly. _Jiraiya?_ I hop over to the window and jump right out of it to see the old perv standing there, leaning against the wall, looking…not very good at all. "Shit!" I grab my medical bag and rummage through it, looking for an all-purpose anti-toxin.

Jiraiya leans down against the railing of the balcony as the three of us crowd around him. "That sneaky little vixen…she must have spiked my drink while I wasn't looking. I can't build up any chakra. My body is so weak, I don;t think I can even throw a kunai straight."

"A compound to block chakra regeneration?" That's not good, I don't know if I have anything to counteract something so specific. Still… "Here, drink this, it might help." I can still give him one of my all purpose antidotes. Maybe it can counteract a few of the ingredients in whatever was used.

As Jiraiya downs the compound, Naruto huffs. "Great, Pervy Sage, and you're always going on about what a great ninja you are. What, did you get distracted by her pretty face?"

"Shut up!" Jiraiya hands me back the empty bottle as he glares irritably at Naruto. Then, he grows quiet again. "She possesses a healer's knowledge of herbs and elixirs. I should have known better. Only Tsunade could whip up a knock-out drug that even a ninja couldn't detect. But still, to be caught off guard like that…I must be losing my touch."

Shizune disappears back inside, and reappears with a pitcher and glass of water, handing the glass to Jiraiya so that he can drink it and help purge his system. "Are you feeling better now, Master Jiraiya?"

"I suppose so, compared to how I felt before. Thanks to that antidote, I think I might be back to thirty percent." He shoots me an appreciative look.

Suddenly, I get a chill down my spine, and my instincts start running haywire. We're being watched. I look around, searching for whoever thinks its a good idea to spy on us, but I can't see anyone. It's even too early for people to be up and about, working on their morning errands.

"Alright, Shizune…" Jiraiya's voice calls back our attention.

"Yes, what is it?" Shizune looks anxious, even…nervous.

"It's time you told us about your mistress and Orochimaru." Orochimaru again…is that guy trying to stick his nose into everything? "What kind of deal are they making?"

"Orochimaru?" Naruto looks to Shizune for a moment, then back at me. "Isn't he…one of the people after you?"

I nod, and Shizune's eyes widen. "What?" Then, horror crosses her face, and her head drops. "I…never imagined she would go through with it. That's why I didn't say anything about it before. But now…there's no time to lose, you must come with me quickly." She gets shakily to her feet. "I'll explain on the way."

"Let's go, then." Jiraiya uses the wall as support as he tests out his balance.

Naruto shoots me a look, and pulls me up as he gets to his feet. "Don't forget about us, we're going too. Right?"

"Right." I nod determinedly. "If Orochimaru wants to play games, then we'll play. And he's not going to like it when we teach him our rules."

The four of us take off towards where the meeting is supposed to happen, and Shizune breaks her silence. "Orochimaru approached us shortly before you arrived. He asked Lady Tsunade to heal his arms after they'd been injured by the Third Hokage. She refused. But then, he tried tempting her with the use of a forbidden jutsu to bring her little brother and my uncle back to life. That was the deal he made her, and left her a week to choose whether or not to take it."

"You can't be serious…" Naruto sounds totally flabbergasted. "The answer has to be no! At least, it better be!"

"Bringing people back from the dead…?" My stomach turns over at the very thought, even of bringing my own family back to life. "That's…so wrong. It's evil! She has to know that." And it's an abomination of nature.

Shizune nods. "And as soon as Orochimaru's arms are healed, he's planning to destroy the Leaf Village!"

"Of course, that's just what I'd expect. And trust me, he'll do far more than that if we don't manage to stop him somehow." Jiraiya picks up the pace a bit, obviously starting to feel better.

Naruto growls. "Who does this creep think he is?"

"Obviously, a master of life and death. Or at least…someone who doesn't care about respecting it." I takeoff from one of the branches, leaving a sizeable indent behind me. "And if push comes to shove…I'll take him out. One way or another…"

Jiraiya eyes me warily. "If all goes well, there should be no need to go that far. Besides, can you really control that power?"

"No, but there's no need to." I feel the warmth deep inside of me and close my eyes for a moment. "He'll control it for me." _Please…give me your eyes to see with. I may need them for this battle._

The warmth inside of me grows, and his voice echoes through my head. Take them and look before you.

I feel the heat rush into them, and open them once more. My vision is sharp and colorful, every tiny movement being picked up as we race towards where the castle once stood. And from here, my eyes can see a site of destruction. "There's been a battle up ahead! Look out!"

Jiraiya glances at me, and I can pick out his uncertainty in his gaze. Shizune, on the other hand, looks downright shocked.

Thankfully, Naruto is totally unfazed by my eyes. "Alright, got it, which way!?"

I point slightly off towards our left. "There. It looks like a bunch of the walls have been taken out, just like that first one we saw."

"Alright, then!" Naruto changes direction slightly, and I follow him through the trees, leaving the adults to play catch-up. And within a minute, we make it to the site of the battle to survey the damage. "Whoa…" Naruto's eyes nearly pop out of his skull at the sight of the destroyed walls, as well as the size of the crater. "What the heck happened…?"

"Well, well…I'd say something put Tsunade in a bad mood. She's got a foul temper." Jiraiya looks around, then pats me on the head. "Good job, squirt, you found where they were."

"Yeah, but that doesn't tell us where they are now." I look around, my eyes searching for any tiny clues left behind.

Naruto looks around, frowning. "Well, okay, but where's the grumpy old bat now? Hm?" He looks down, after stepping on an eerily familiar jacket.

Gathering around the jacket, the pig starts sniffing at it, and Shizune looks down attentively. "Alright, which way, Tonton?"

The pig takes off, so Naruto races after it. "Okay, let's go!"

I hesitate for only a moment, but follow along anyway. For some reason, I seem to be the only one who thinks it's weird that we're following a pig. Still, it's a pig that seems to know where it's going, based on the fact that as we move out into the middle of nowhere, I can sense chakra signatures growing stronger.

I reach into my smaller pack and toss Naruto a smoke bomb. "Here, get ready to use that, just in case we need to run interference." And from the looks of it…I can see Tsunade on the ground, and Kabuto about to go in for an attack. _Wait, Kabuto?_ "You might want to throw it soon!" _What the hell is going on? I thought that he was from the Chunin Exams._

"Got it!" Naruto picks up the pace, drawing his arm back to throw it as the four of us get in range.

The next few seconds are a flurry of smoke and movement, and the four of us appear between Kabuto and Tsunade, effectively stopping that fight in its tracks. And the first thing that I notice is that Kabuto is wearing a headband that is most certainly not from the Leaf Village. It has a musical note on it, a headband from the Sound.

And of course…there's Orochimaru standing there in the background. Now him, I recognize from that night in the village. And just the sight of him makes me shiver. Seriously, the man is the very definition of creepy.

Our appearance, however, doesn't seem to faze him much. "It's been a long time, old friend." _These two were old friends? Well…I guess they would have to be, being old teammates, but still…creepy. I'd definitely rather deal with the pervert._

Jiraiya frowns, before grinning again. "Long time indeed, and I can't say it's improved your looks, any, old friend." _Okay, yeah, I'm definitely preferring the pervert._

Naruto blinks, finally recognizing the young man in front of us. "Hey…Kabuto!"

"Naruto…" Kabuto's eyes then flick to me. "And Ciara. It's been a while."

Jiraiya eyes us curiously. "You two have met this guy before?"

"Well, of course we have. We all took the Chunin Exams together." Naruto frowns at Kabuto, confused about his presence. "What're you doing here, Kabuto?"

"Out of the way!" Tsunade pushes us all aside, knocking Jiraiya right to the ground as she goes in to engage Kabuto again. "Stay out of this! I can handle them!"

And despite her rather impressive display of taijutsu, it would appear, in the end…that she can't. Because as soon as she gets far away from us, and close enough to Kabuto, she gets sprayed with blood and just freezes right up. At which point, Kabuto punches her, and sends her flying right back into Shizune's arms.

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune shakes her, trying to rouse her. It's not working.

Naruto looks around, completely bewildered. "I don't get it. What's going on? I'm confused, did I miss out on something? How come Kabuto and Grandma Tsunade are mixing it up?"

"I see you're as slow as ever, Naruto. No wonder you're no match for Sasuke." Kabuto grins at him, no, he's smirking. "I bet your little friend knows. After all, she's something of a genius herself, isn't she?"

I grit my teeth, glaring at him. "You're working for Orochimaru…and you're a traitor to the Leaf, if even originally one of our ninja at all. You're a ninja of the Sound Village."

Naruto gasps, and Kabuto smirks cruelly. "That's right. I' a spy from the Village Hidden in the Sound."

"A…a spy? That's impossible. You don't really mean it…" Naruto looks at him, obviously hoping that it isn't true. But I know that he's going to be disappointed. "B-but you helped us get through the Chunin Exams. You saved our lives."

"Only in order to gather information about all of you. That was my mission." His words make me recoil slightly, regretting that I ever healed him at all in the first place. "Indeed, I learned some rather important things…about the two of you. For example…I learned one very important thing about you, Naruto. You lack any ninja ability. You're nothing like Sasuke." Then, he looks almost…hungrily at me. "You, on the other hand, are brimming with untapped potential. Not to mention…what you've got tucked away inside of you."

My eyes widen, and I wrap my arms around my stomach instinctively. _When the hell did he have the chance to find out!? I never showed off that power except for-_ I freeze my train of thought. _I showed off that power during the attack…as well as in the Forest of Death. Is that when he saw me?_

"So many secrets wrapped up in one tiny body. It's actually rather astonishing." He adjust his glasses, looking at me as though I'm some kind of science project. "Isn't that right, Lady Shiryugu?"

Being called that shouldn't freak me out. After all, it's a natural honorific. But the way he says it sends all sorts of bad feelings shooting up and down my spine.

Naruto notices my shaking, and grabs hold of my hand. "Hey, Granny looks like she's in rough shape. Why don't you go help her out a little."

I glance at Naruto uncertainly. "Are you sure? If we fight together, we can take him down no problem."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He lets go of my hand and stands in front of me, sending a pretty clear message. I'm sitting on the sidelines, for now. He also has a look on his face that tels me that he's about ready to turn this into a grudge match, despite any fond feelings he may have held for Kabuto.

"Okay."I tap him softly on the shoulders, before backing up about twenty feet, and turning my back to where the battle is about to break out, in favor of tending to a bloodied and bruised Tsunade. "Jeez…you got yourself all banged up, didn't you?"

Seconds later, I hear the tell-tale signs of Naruto charging into battle, and Shizune looks at me worriedly. "Shouldn't you go and stop him!? He's going to get himself killed!"

"No, he's not. And my place, for now, is right here." My hands start to glow, and I find that her muscles are weakened in two of her limbs, and she's been hit in a ton of places with a chakra scalpel, including her chest, where her lungs have suffered some damage. "Damn it…" I'm not a master healer like Tsunade is, so what I can do for her is only rudimentary at best. Unfortunately, she's catatonic, and I've got no clue why. "Why is she so unresponsive?"

Shizune uselessly keeps her trap shut, leaving me to patch up the old lady as best I can. Though I do notice that Shizune has been careful to mop up all of the blood, though none of it seems to belong to either of them. Thankfully, there's no blood loss to complicate things as I restore integrity to her muscles.

The sounds of battle echo behind me as Naruto charges in. But only half a minute later, he comes flying towards us, yelling out in pain. I barely have time to turn my head before Shizune reaches out and pulls him out of the air and into her arms, driving her back several feet.

She steadies Naruto, before muttering something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like plasma pill. Naruto's confused voice confirms it for me. And I glance back to see precisely that being popped into Kabuto's mouth. _I see…so that's where the blood came from. If that's the case…then is Tsunade haemophobic? Did he know and take advantage of that?_ It would certainly explain why she seemed to go catatonic only after being sprayed with blood.

"Well, of course. He's trying to replace the blood that he's already lost." It seems that Jiraiya is well versed in medical ninja tools as well. In fact, I would say that Naruto is probably the only person here who isn't.

Naruto stands up, with a little help from Shizune. "So that's Orochimaru…"

"Yeah…in all his creepy glory." I glare back at the pale, snake-like man. "He's been sneaking around for way too long…"

Jiraiya nods. "Well, now we can finally get down to business." He turns to look at me and Tsunade. Then, as though writing us off, he looks to the assistant. "Shizune, I'll let you take care of Four-Eyes over there. Ciara, you stay put and take care of Tsunade. We might need your help later. And leave Orochimaru to me. There's just one thing…I need Tsunade to do something about my body before we get started here."

Shizune sighs. "Even with the antidote you were given, it'll take a while for the full effects of the drug to leave your system, I'm very sorry but it can't be helped, Master Jiraiya."

"What!? You've gotta be kidding!" Jiraiya's eyes bug out at the apology. "Ah, well, what can ya do, right? I'll just have to face him as I am.

"What about me, what do I do!?" Naruto's eagerness to be included might just get him killed at this rate.

"Nothing, I want you to stand guard over Tsunade while Ciara tends to her wounds." Jiraiya is effectively grounding Naruto from this fight, which, I'm not sure is a good idea or not."

Naruto pouts at the order. "Come on, I wanna fight this guy. He's gotta pay for what he did!"

"Forget about it!" Jiraiya raises his voice, speaking very sternly. "That jerk with the glasses is right, you're in over your head. Our opponent's one of the Sannin, like me, and the man who killed the Third Hokage. This is an eye for an eye!" Jiraiya glares across the battlefield. "I'm the only one who can fight Orochimaru! And Four-Eyes over there could go toe to toe with Kakashi if he had to."

"Don't worry, not a problem!" Naruto readies himself to make probably a few hundred cones to deal with Kabuto.

"Hold on, Naruto, your clones won't work here. You needn't bother, there isn't any point." Jiraiya glares at the rather evil medic. "It wouldn't even be a decent diversion, you'd be wasting your chakra."

"What about me? I could take Kabuto." And I know that I could,especially if it's just a matter of power and skill.

"Yeah, and you would probably take out the whole area in the process even if you succeeded." Jiraiya chides me like I'm a little kid. "Besides, Orochimaru's already expressed an interest in you. There's no point in giving him even more reason to have his eye on you. Besides, Tsunade needs healing, and you're a talented medic, even if you've barely got any experience."

I bristle at the clear admonishments to my skills. I'm not nearly as out of control as he seems to think, and I most certainly have experience in medical emergencies. And most of all, I hate being underestimated as much as Naruto does.

"Now then, how about we get this thing started?" Jiraiya's voice primes just about everyone for movement, except for Tsunade, who remains listless and uncaring. His hands flash, before he puts one down on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"

And why…does it not surprise me that although a giant two-headed snake appears under Orochimaru's feet, that a tiny orange toad appears for Jiraiya. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen Naruto summon that toad before.

Jiraiya is…less than pleased to see him. "What the!? What are you doing here!? What happened to your father!?"

Naruto grimaces at the sight of Jiraiya's failure. Looks like the old guy just didn't have enough chakra to pull it off. So, Naruto tries his hand at it next.

It takes all of my strength not to express my…disappointment in Naruto's lack of skill in this instance. Not only did he not manage to summom that huge toad he calls Gamabunta, but what he did summon was an even smaller orange toad.

"Ugh, where did I go wrong!?" Naruto waves him arms frustratedly.

The little toad though…is actually rather cute. "Hey everybody. Hey friend, how are ya?"

"Hey, Gamatatsu. Why did you pop out? Where's the old man?" The darker orange toad helpfully identifies the light orange toad. At least now I won't have to call them Toad One and Toad Two.

"Huh?" Gamatatsu turns his little head towards the other toad. "Ah…Gamakichi, what's going on? This is the first time anyone's ever summoned me! I'm finally gettin' a chance to shine…" Well, at least the little guy is eager about helping out. Not that two pint-sized toads are really going to be able to do much against the giant snake.

"You dummy, go get some munchies and go find a place to hide, will ya?" Seems like Gamakichi is the older of the two, or at least the smarter one. Then again, Gamatatsu seems a little brain-dead to me. Or maybe he's just really really young.

"Wait, they've got snacks here? Gee whiz, this is just the coolest." Gamatatsu claps his flippered hands together happily, and it's so cute…that I'm almost worried he's going to become a snack instead.

I glance at Naruto and shake my head. "Somehow, I don't really see how these two are going to be of much help. Nice try, though."

"Oh yeah!? Well-" Naruto's words are cut off, everything just happens so fast.

The snakes come hurtling towards us, so I grab Tsunade and bolt, jumping as quickly as I can through the cloud of dust. Shizune stays close by, until Kabuto kicks her towards the ground, taking her into a battle of their own involving poison needles, and a rather scary looking poison fog.

I cover my mouth while I watch, still pumping chakra into Tsunade's body. She's used a lot of chakra, but her wounds are almost fully healed now, and all of the chakra I've pumped into her has helped to replenish her own stores.

Kabuto disappears from sight, popping up out of the ground to grab Shizune by the legs and damage her tendons in the process, after slamming a chakra scalpel into her gut. Great…more work for me… Because with Tsunade and Shizune out of commission, I'm the only medic around to keep people from dying.

While I drag Shizune back towards Tsunade so that I can tend to her as well, I watch Naruto popping out of a snake's mouth out of the corner of my eye, before getting flattened by said snake.

I'm the only one still in any fighting shape. _Damn it. Well, old man, looks like I'll be disobeying orders._ Taking in a deep breath, I watch as Kabuto approaches, before unleashing a storm of water bullets from my mouth. _That should keep him back for a minute._

Then, Kabuto appears to my left, and I stop firing the bullets, my arms coming up to block his strike. "You are not getting Tsunade!" As Kabuto brings his foot down instead, a flash of fire erupts on either side of me, feather materializing out of nowhere and interlocking in front of me. I catch the strike on my wings, before they unlock and expand, flinging him backwards as I stand up, eyes blazing. "I told you before…you're not getting her!" My hands flash together, bringing forth two ninjutsu in quick succession. First, comes a giant wave of fire, followed by a hot blast of air, pushing it out and riling up the flames further, creating a veritable inferno before me.

That's what happens when you combine the River of Flames and the Air Cushion.

I can feel the feather-like markings around my eyes, spanning my forehead and cheeks. And I can feel the feathers jutting out of my hair. My hands move, and seconds later, sharp wind blades erupt from my fingertips, forcing Kabuto to use all of that speed of his to dodge for his life, so that he won't end up split in half by the wind.

I can hear him smirking as he runs. "Well, now that's surprising. I didn't think you would be able to rattle off so many ninjutsu so quickly, especially with all of the chakra you've been using up healing that poor excuse for a medical ninja. But it ends now!"

Kabuto appears out of nowhere, before aiming a punch at Tsunade's head. I spin around, my sandals digging into the dirt to make it there and stop him. But I'm too late.

Naruto, on the other hand, isn't. And the punch connects with his headband as he stands his ground. Though what concerns me is the blood what drips down his face as a result. The impact had enough force to at least split the skin there, maybe more. And the crimson drops contrasts startlingly against the blond hair and blue eyes. "Back off! That's enough, already, you traitor!"

Kabuto does back off, and in response, Naruto makes the Rasengan in his hands, preparing to drive it into Kabuto's stomach. As he does that, though, Kabuto hits him in the thigh with a chakra scalpel. Whatever he does, and there's plenty to do in that particular place, puts Naruto on the ground and fast.

Kabuto smirks. "It looks like you fractured the right thigh bone during your tussle with the serpent. If it were only the bone, you could still move. But it's beyond that now. I've severed the lateral vastus muscle in your right leg as well."

I curse silently. _Damn it, so he's dealing with a broken bone and a severed quadriceps muscle? That's too much damage!_ I know my limits, and I know them well. And fixing a broken bone, and that major a severed muscle is beyond my level of skill.

"What's the matter, are you frightened? I hope you don't feel like running away." Kabuto's laugh makes me want to plow the dirt with his face. The rotten little… "Naruto…as I recall, you were nothing but big talk during that first Chunin Exam. 'Don't underestimate me. I don't run away. I don't care if I'm a genin the rest of my guys aren't going to scare me off, I'll still be Hokage someday.' So, where's all your big talk now?"

Angry, and feeling very defensive of Naruto, I lunge at Kabuto, knocking him right over and grabbing for his hands. "You know, for a spy, you talk too much!"

Tha chakra scalpels come right back out, and this time, he's not the only one wielding one. He rolls me over, his hand touching my wing, a very visible target. And despite the groan of pain that tears itself from my throat, I slam my palm to his chest, before knocking it back against his left bicep.

He snarls and drives the scalpel against my other wing, causing me to shriek in pain. "Get off me you brat!"

"No!" I roll us right back over, my hands slamming against every part of his body that I can reach, trying to do as much damage as I can, as quickly as possible. "I'm not going to let you keep hurting my friend! I will protect him!"

"Oh yeah?" He slams his hand right into my stomach, tearing me up a bit inside. "Sweet dreams, kid." And he dumps me on the ground, before heading right back towards Naruto.

I cough up way too much blood to be healthy, but I can already feel Suzaku's healing chakra at work, putting right all of the things cut and severed by our rolling around slamming each other with chakra scalpels. And upon seeing the first of many kicks to Naruto's battered and bruised body, I spring into action.

I slam into Kabuto once more, though this time, he manages to half dodge me, getting in another hit to my broken wings. And despite the pain that has my body waging war with itself, I force the wings to close up, and I lean down over Naruto, covering the both of us in a dome of hardened red feathers.

I feel the impacts of more kicks on my wings, and each one sends jarring pain through my bones. But instead of focusing on that, I focus on the glow in my hands, directed solely at Naruto's leg. I may not have the skill to heal it wall the way, but I can at least give that fox a kickstart in healing him. Because Naruto needs to be able to get back up and soon!

Groaning, I bit my lip and focus all of my attention on ignoring the pain enough to pump Naruto's leg full of chakra. "Come on Naruto…get up!"

"Ciara?" Naruto's blue eyes blink up at me. "What are you doing?"

"Healing your leg, dummy." Well, I'm trying, but maybe a placebo will help. "Does it hurt anymore?"

He moves it, wincing at the motion. "Yeah, but I'll be okay."

"Then give me another ten seconds, and you should be able to fight at least. Just don't push it too hard, your leg is still broken." Well, and there's his muscle to worry about, but that'll have to wait for later.

Ten seconds later, I feel a bunch of the bones in my wings crack, and I have to call it quits. "Alright, Naruto, it's go time!" I unhook my wings from each other and let Naruto go, my own body collapsing into the dirt.

My vision flickers as sounds cease to make sense. I can vaguely hear Naruto yelling about something, but the blood pounding in my ears feels like I'm being run over by a train or something. Each second that passes is agony. But after a while…the agony is a little less.

 _Do not worry, chick, I will tend to your wounds._

 _Suzaku…? What's going on?_

 _Your newest teacher and his old comrades are waging a great battle. But do not worry, they are far away, and will return for you when the fighting is done._

 _But…I want to help them._

 _You have already helped them. Now rest…you will do no one any good if you do not allow me to heal you. And for that, you must rest for several days._

 _Days? Are you sure?_ I really don't want to be out of commission for multiple days if I can hep it.

 _Yes, chick, now sleep…_ His power washes over me, a warm blanket that makes my thoughts hazy and unstable. Hard to hold onto.

And…that's about when my little feathered friend sees fit to knock me unconscious.


	60. When Medics Put Their Heads Together

**Okay, it's finally time for all of them to return to the Leaf. Damn, this turned out to be a longer arc than I originally planned. Over 50k words for it. This whole project is going to be even bigger than I expected. Well, all the best things have a ton of effort put into them, so I suppose it's only to be expected.**

 **Now…onto some more Ciara-Tsunade interactions (well, later this chapter), because apparently, that's been going over rather well. But first, there's some Ciara-Sasuke interactions (trying to make that as natural as possible, considering the circumstances surrounding Itachi, but also not trying to give away everything at once, so it's gonna be kinda awkward).**

 **But, here ends the arc, and I'll be transitioning into the Land of Tea next chapter.**

* * *

The first thing I see when I wake up is a head of spiky white hair that my face is pressed right into. And judging by the broad set of the shoulders, I must be riding on Jiraiya's back. Not exactly the position I imaged I'd wake up to. But, I suppose it could be a whole lot worse.

Sleepily, I yawn and poke at the white mane. "Hey…where are we? And what day is it?" I have no clue how long Suzaku put me to sleep for, so I might as well ask.

Jiraiya's deep chuckle greets me. "Well, good morning sleepyhead. It's Monday morning. We're almost back at the village. You've been out of it for a week."

"A week…?" _Jeez, that was a lot longer than I expected._ "How close are we?"

"Super close! Like ten minutes!" Naruto's voice pops up so suddenly that I remove my face from Jiraiya's hair and look down to see bright blue eyes. "Heya!"

"Hi…" I look around and shake my head slightly. "Can you put me down now?"

"Alright. But be careful, you haven't walked in a week, and you've been asleep to heal all the damage you took fighting off Kabuto."

I nod as he puts me down, and I take a few shaky steps forward. "Jeez…what a pain in the ass." I take a few more steps, only to nearly stumble over nothing.

Luckily, Naruto's hands grab hold of me and he steadies me. "Hey, you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah…" I take a few more steps, this time with Naruto still keeping me steady. "I think I'm good now." My balance feels like it's getting better by the second. "Yeah, I'm good, you can let go now."

"Alright." He lets go of my arms, only to grab my hand instead, pulling me along the path towards the village. "We're almost home, ya know, and when we get back, we're getting ramen!"

"Ramen, huh?" Looks like lunch has been planned for me already, unless I can get out of it somehow. Because I really don't feel like having ramen today. "But…is that before or after we go to the hospital?" Because I would really like to see Sasuke back on his feet as soon as possible.

"Well, after, duh!" Naruto grins brightly at me. "With Granny Tsunade here, Sasuke and Kakashi-Sensei will be out of the hospital in no time!"

"How about you go and meet Iruka for ramen without me then..." I suppose that we could always go back to our apartments with our stuff, let Tsunade get a bit settled, and then drag her off to the hospital. After all, she's been gone for a while, it would be mean to just drag her straight there without consideration.

"Fine..." As we pass through the village gates, Jiraiya is the first to wander off, and Shizune drags Tsunade off towards the Hokage tower. So, Naruto and I make the trek home to put our stuff away, and I make sure to shower before heading back out the door.

Waiting in the hallway for me is Naruto. "Hey, so…I'll stake out the Hokage's office and bring the old lady to the hospital, okay?"

That sounds reasonable enough. "Alright, then I'll head to the hospital and check on Sasuke. Itachi broke his wrist during that fight, so I'd better check on that."

"Right…" Naruto eyes me strangely. "Are you alright? I mean…with that whole Itachi thing?"

"You mean Sasuke wanting to kill him, because he supposedly offed the entire Uchiha Clan?" I sigh and close my eyes. "I…don't know what happened, and until I do, I can't make a judgment on it. But I do know Itachi, and something just seems…wrong to me. He has always been one of the people I love most, and it's impossible for me to imagine him doing something so terrible. So…I don't know, honestly. I don't know how I feel about it. But…maybe one day I will." It's all that I know right at this moment, so it'll have to do.

"Yeah…" Then, as I open my eyes, Naruto smacks his cheeks. "Alright, well, I'm gonna get going. You go check on Sasuke for me!"

"Got it…" I watch him run off in the opposite direction, before I turn to head for the hospital.

I've been here many, many times, but never quite for this reason. I pass by the front desk, since I know full well what visiting hours are like, and that by now, Sasuke is definitely allowed visitors. And it's not all that hard to find him either, because there's a familiar chakra sitting by his bedside as I find his nae next to one of the doors on the second floor.

 _Sakura…_

Pulling back the curtain, I flash her a smile as she turns to see who's come in. "Hey, I'm back."

"Ciara!" She gets up in a hurry, her earlier sad expression turning into a smile. "You're back! How did your mission go!?"

I shoot her a bright smile. "It was a success. Lady Tsunade has been brought back to the village, she's a legendary medic, as well as the next Hokage. Naruto is on his way right now to go and find her so that she can heal Kakashi, Sasuke, and take a look at Lee."

Sakura's eye's brighten, and then start to water, before she surges towards me and gives me a hug. "Oh, thank you! So Sasuke is going to be okay, right!?"

I nod. "If there's anyone who can help him, it's gonna be her. Now…" I extricate myself from her grip and go to Sasuke's other side, where his wrist was once broken. "First, I want to check him out myself."

Sakura sits back down and watches attentively as my fingers move along Sasuke's wrist, my hand glowing as I check the bones for damage. Of course, we've been gone for a month, so its not surprising to find that thanks to all of that time, along with the Leaf's medics, his wrist has made a full recovery. "Well, I have good news, his wrist is fine. I was worried, considering the way it got broken…" That was not fun to watch, and entirely out of character for the man I once knew as one of my most precious people.

"Oh, good…"She relaxes into her chair, looking worried, but a little relieved too. "So…what's she like?"

"May I come in?" Tsunade walks in anyway, looking rather refreshed.

Sakura rises from her seat in confusion, but also in respect. "Uh, who are you?"

Shizune follows in after her, and I smile. "Sakura, this is Lady Tsunade, the medic that I told you about.

Naruto bursts in with a grin on his face. "Sakura, Sakura, you'll never believe it! She's gonna make everything okay again!" He grins down at the bed. "Don't worry, Sasuke's going to be alright now."

Sakura turns to her and bows. "You must be the one that Ciara and Gai-Sensei told me about. Please, if you can save Sasuke…"

"Well, I'll see what I can do." Tsunade smiles, before turning to look down at Sasuke, unconscious in the bed.

I stay seated on the bed next to Sasuke, watching Tsunade carefully. "If you don't mind, I want to observe your technique. Just in case something like this ever happens to someone again."

"Very well." She presses her palm to Sasuke's forehead, her chakra glowing as it pulses. It's almost like a heartbeat as she applies it to his brain. Of course, that makes sense, since genjutsu affects primarily the brain.

After several long moments, Sasuke flinches, his eyes slowly opening as he regains consciousness.

"Sasuke!" Naruto's grin only grows as Sasuke wakes up.

Sakura nearly cries as she watches him. "Oh, Sasuke!" She throws herself at him, wrapping him tightly in a hug, tears flowing from her eyes. It's a bit dramatic, kind of like a soap opera, but hey, not my problem.

"Hey Sasuke…you're back!" Naruto grins widely, though it fades a little as he gets left out of the hug. Sasuke doesn't really seem to be registering the hug, though, so I just grab Naruto's hand and smile reassuringly at him. And he puts on a sad smile as he slips his hand out of mine and heads for the door. Then, he pokes his hand back in the room to beckon Tsunade. "Come on, you're not done."

Tsunade snorts softly as she and Shizune follow Naruto out of the room. I, however, stay a little longer. Tapping Sakura on the shoulder, I grab her attention. "Hey, let him go for a sec. He might be awake, but I should still test him a little to make sure that he's actually conscious." She blinks, before backing off a little, giving me room to work. I snap my fingers in front of his face, grabbing his hazy attention. "Hey, Sasuke, are you with us?"

He blinks bemusedly, before his gaze starts to sharpen a little. "You're…"

"Okay, and we have a word, good. Yes, I'm Ciara, remember?" I just hope that whatever Itachi did to him didn't scramble his brains too badly. "Do you know where you are?"

He blinks again, his gaze and focus sharpening further. His eyes flit around, taking in the scene. "I'm…in the hospital?"

"That's right, you're in the hospital. There was a ended badly. You broke your wrist, and you've been in a coma for a month." Best to just get the explanations out of the way. "Do you remember anything else?"

His eyes wander a bit, before becoming as sharp as kunai. "Itachi…"

That sparks some alarm in me, so I turn to his pink-haired teammate. "Sakura, I think that maybe you should come back to visit him tomorrow. He might be in a better mood then." I doubt that she's going to want to be here for this, and I doubt that Sasuke would like it in hindsight, either.

She glances at me uncertainly, then at Sasuke, then back at me. "A-alright…" She gathers up a book that she brought with her and scurries out of the room.

And I turn my head back to see Sasuke glaring at me. "Alright, so you're pissed. What's it about this time?"

"How do you know Itachi?" The question is short, sweet, and to the point.

Crossing my arms, I stare evenly at him. "I've known him ever since I was about a year old, maybe younger. He and Uncle Shisui used to come and visit me all the time when I was little."

His eyes narrow in suspicion. "Did you know what he did? What he was going to do?"

Sighing, I uncross my arms. "I'm almost a year younger than you, so no, I didn't. I still don't know the details, and honestly, I don't want to know. Whatever happened seems to haunt you more than enough, and since there's nothing I can do about it, I would prefer not to have anything else haunting my dreams. I've...got plenty of nightmares already, and don't need any more of them." My fists clench tightly. "You're not the only one who's lost people."

His expression stays the same for almost a minute, as though just by looking at me, he's going through every single one of my memories in order to determine the truth. And then, finally, he relaxes and looks down into his lap. "I see…" Then, he twitches slightly. "I won't tell you the details. It's...private, anyway."

I doubt that he's all fine in there, but as long as he calms down, then I won't make a fuss about it. "Anyway…I'm sorry that you got caught up in all of that. They were there for Naruto, and me by extension. You shouldn't have gotten caught up in it at all." Then, I frown. "Why were you there anyway?"

He blinks, then clenches his fists on the sheets, crinkling them. "To warn the two of you…I heard that Itachi was after Naruto, so…"

"So you were going to warn us, because you knew that Naruto and I go almost everywhere together. I'm guessing that you checked here at the hospital first, looking for me, hoping that I could point you to Naruto. And when you realized that we were both gone, you came after us." That sounds like the most logical course of action that he would have taken.

"Exactly…and I was too late." He looks almost ashamed of himself now.

So, I pat him on the shoulder and smile. "It's not your fault, you had no idea how to find us, and they were tracking us from the beginning. If anything, you went above and beyond what anyone could have expected of you. And for that…you paid the price." I sigh and lean my head against his. "Don't be so reckless next time…me and Naruto are a lot tougher than you think. And if nothing else, we're fast enough to outrun jounin if we have to. Heavens know we've have plenty of practice outrunning them when Naruto pulls pranks."

Sasuke snorts softly, and it's faint, very faint, but I could swear that I see a smile of relief on his face. "At least you two survived…"

I laugh at his reasoning. "Yes, we survived. And we have you to thank for running interference until Jiraiya got there for that. So…thank you, you saved our lives."

"Good…" He grows quiet again, which might be a good thing, or it might be bad, I'm not sure. But at least he's not mad and yelling anymore.

So, I let go of him and rise from the bed. "Now, you're still not back at a hundred percent, so spend the rest of today and tonight resting, because you'll probably be back on active duty and taking on missions before you know it. So promise me that you'll behave yourself." That earns me a glare, not that I expected any less. "Alright, I might see you tomorrow, unless you check out early. Now, I have to go see if Lady Tsunade is checking on Lee yet."

Before I make it through the door, Sasuke's voice stops me. "That woman…is the new Hokage?"

I glance back at Sasuke and smile. "That she is." And I glide out of the room without further ado. Making my way through the halls, I notice Naruto heading out, so I stop him. "Hey, do you know where Lee is?"

He points back towards one of the examination rooms. "He and the old lady are in there."

I hug him happily. "Alright, thanks!" And I speed off towards the examination room. I remember examining him myself during the preliminaries, but if Tsunade is here and able to help, then I want to help as well.

When I get there, I'm not even in the door yet when I hear Tsunade's voice. "No one will hold it against you if you give up on being a shinobi."

"B-but you're not serious, are you? You're exaggerating, right, Lady Tsunade?" Gai's voice does not sound particularly enthused about her words.

I stay hidden and listen to the diagnosis. "His injuries have left bone fragments embedded in his spinal column. It's a miracle he can still move at all. He's physically incapable of carrying out the duties of a shinobi.

Gai laughs nervously. "This is some kind of test, right? You don't really mean that."

"Even if I were able to operate…" Her voice is nearly cut off by Gai's hysterics.

"So…I have no chance?" Lee's voice sounds flat, and almost a little desolate. "It is hopeless?"

"No one but me could even attempt the operation. But even with my skills…the risks would be enormous.

"What risks?" Gai's voice sounds like his heart has dropped into his stomach.

"The chances of it being successful…are fifty-fifty at best. And if it should fail…he'll die." It's the kind of prognosis that no one wants to hear. But…maybe… "It's best if you give up being a shinobi, find a different path.

"Wait." I round the corner and enter the room. "What if…what if you had a larger pool of chakra to draw from during the operation? An extra set of hands? Some…old wisdom concerning healing and medicine? Would any of that increase the odds?"

Four pairs of eyes find me, some curious, some stern. Tsunade frowns. "What are you suggesting?"

I close the door behind me, and heat rises to my eyes. "I have an enormous pool of chakra inside me, and he…one of his specialties is healing. If he helped you…"

Tsunade considers me carefully. "Well, I guess, depending on what we could do with it, it might increase the odds. But there's no guarantee. Just what are you suggesting, and…how?"

I bite my lip, and one glance at Lee's hopeful eyes gives me courage. "What I say doesn't leave this room?" Tsunade nods slowly. "I'm a jinchuuriki. I have a powerful entity sealed away inside of me. And best of all…he's friendly."

Tsunade's eyes widen, and I could swear that she's thinking about Naruto in this moment. "I see…so that's why you were unconscious for a week. What Kabuto did to you should have killed you, but…"

"But my friend healed me, though it took him a week to do it, with the limited amount of chakra that he can channel through my body right now. If I made a conscious and controlled effort, though…"

Gai's eyes light up at the prospect. "You're saying that you could help make the operation a success?"

"Maybe…but it's up to Tsunade to decide if and how to apply my help." After all, I can't force it on anyone. And for all I know, it might do no extra good in the end anyway. "And even then, I can't promise that it would actually help at all. I just…want to help, if I can."

Everyone grows silent, and Lee, pulls the top of his hideous green jumpsuit back on. Then, he takes up his crutch, and removes himself from the room without even another word. It's…hard to watch his spirits be crushed like that, even if I tried to offer him some light.

Once Lee disappears, Gai's expression grows cold. "If I had known you were going to do this, I would have never let you see him."

Shizune is affronted by the scathing remark against her lady. "Don't say that!"

Tsunade,on the other hand,remains nonplussed. "I understand your pain. Believe me, I get no pleasure from this. But he needs to know the truth, and to know it now. A choice has to be made. Putting it off won't make it any easier." Then, she turns to me. "Are you sure that you want to offer your services that way?"

I'm a little startled by the question, but I nod firmly. "I was the one who tended his injuries first during the Chunin Exams. If there's a chance for me to do now what I couldn't do then, then I'm all for it."

"I see, then remain on standby, just in case." Those words give me some hope that maybe, just maybe, there might actually be something that I can do for Lee, despite my failure to do so at the exams.

So, as ordered, I head home to be on standby for now.

* * *

It's not until a few hours later that there's a knocking on my door, and I open it to see Shizune standing there. "Is there something wrong?"

She shakes her head. "Lady Tsunade has sent me to tell you to go to the library. She'd like to go over a few things with you."

My eyes widen, and my lips curl into a smile. "Got it." I grab some of my medical books, just in case, along with my medical bag, and make a dash for the library. It's evening, but that doesn't matter, I'll stay up all night if I have to.

I race into the library, looking left and right for our new Hokage. Then, I spot her at one of the back tables, along with what looks like a couple of sake bottles. _Of course she wants to get drunk…_

Still, I told her that she could count on me, and I'm here to prove that. "Granny Tsunade, you summoned me?"

She glares at me sourly. "Don't call me that."

I shrug lightly. "Hey, if it fits, it fits. But anyway, what did you call me here for?"

The glare only softening a little, she turns around the book she's reading and lets me see the diagrams. "Here, it's about cell regeneration. I think…you should be able to fill in the blanks by yourself."

Looking down at the book, I frown. "This is…" A technique that involves a huge amount of chakra, but… "It's what Suzaku uses to heal me. A kind of mitotic regeneration. It takes a massive amount of chakra, but…what are you planning on using it for?"

"Lee." She says it simply, her eyes never leaving me. "It might increase his chances."

That's when it all clicks into place. "You want to use this technique on Lee in order to keep his cells regenerating, his organs functioning, and his chakra network active and responsive during the surgery."

"Exactly. But…it would be difficult to do that myself while carrying out the surgery, and it takes a massive amount of chakra, as well as very fine chakra control to activate all of his cells at once, and then maintain it. And it will have to be sustained over the course of several hours…"

Now I see the dilemma. _Do you…think that we could do it? I know that you have the chakra for it, but do you think that together, we have enough focus to keep this kind of technique going for five or six hours while she performs the surgery? And without overloading his cells and wearing them out?_

There's a moment of silence, before I get my answer. _Yes, together, we can do it._

Slowly, I nod my answer to our new Hokage. "Yes, the two of us can do what you ask. But it will take some studying and practice on my part. When were you planning the surgery, if Lee agrees?"

Tsunade's expression lightens considerably. "Well, it wouldn't be immediately. I'll need some time myself in order to get it ready. But I would say…maybe in three weeks or so, a month at most. Can you be ready in that short mount of time?"

"Alright, I think that's doable." I can definitely learn the technique in that time frame, and even have time for missions as well. Well, as long as I get some help from my feathered friend.

"In that case…" She tosses me a book from the almost alarmingly large pile. "Let's get started."

I catch the book, and sit down across the table from her. "Yes…let's." And so begins the first of many of our sessions together, our noses stuffed into books as we search for the answers to making Lee's surgery a success.

Because with fifty-fifty base odds, and my involvement maybe upping the chances, it means that Lee's life will be in my hands as much as Tsunade's. And that's more than a little frightening.

Late into the evening, when the library closes, I opt to accompany Tsunade into her office, rather than turn in early. So, I sit across the desk from her, my nose in a book when Shizune walks in. "Any progress with the Cell Activation Jutsu?" She places a cup of tea in front of Tsunade, and offers me one as well that I wave away. I don't drink tea.

Tsunade sighs. "At the end of the day, this is all about chakra. But with so many different type of cells…skin, internal, muscular…to activate them all at once…it's going to be a bit difficult."

"Well, that part may be difficult for you. I've got the chakra, but I need to make sure that I've got the control as well." I flip through the book in front of me, my eyes glued to the page.

"Really? Well, that doesn't sound too bad, then." Shizune is…optimistic, to put it mildly.

Tsunade scoffs. "Are you trying to test my patience?"

"No!" Shizune smiles. "I have the utmost faith in you."

"Good, I'm glad someone does…" I move some chakra through my fingertips, practicing the concept of the technique. "Well, keep cheering, and maybe it'll help keep me motivated." As if helping Lee wasn't motivation enough."

I'll do this to help one of my peers. If he wants to do this, then damn it, I'm going to make sure that he survives this and goes on to thrive as a shinobi.


	61. Promotion

**Alright, so I figure that I can get away with rearranging things a bit, since I wanted to get this part done before the Land of Tea kicks off. It's also something of a later conclusion to the Chunin Exam arc, and should sweep us right along into the next part of the story. It's also a bit of a filler chapter, but I really think that it's important to show teammates getting along. Akito and Hiro ust don't get enough screen time. It's not quite a bow though, but it's about as close as I could get.**

 **And I'm glad that you guys seem to be happy with all of the updates, I just figured that since I've actually got some time and motivation, thanks to spring break (and now that midterms are over), that I should get down and focus while I can.**

 **Now, on with the promotions.**

* * *

It's been a while since the three of us have gotten together like this, but since we were all called together, the three of us meet in our usual place at the training ground. And from the looks of it, neither of the boys know why we're here either.

Akito seems to have gained an inch or two while I've been gone. Damn growth spurts that seem to hit everyone but me. I'm still not even five feet tall, not even close, and it's driving me up the wall. My parents were both way taller than this, so why the hell is my body stubbornly refusing to grow?

Noticing my pout, Akito pats me on the back. "So, I heard from Lady Hokage's assistant that you had quite the tussle with that Kabuto guy from the Chunin Exams. Are you all healed up from that?"

I nod and rub my stomach at the memory. "Yeah, I healed just fine. He tore me up pretty good though. I think he almost ruptured a few of my organs, too." He really knew how to wield that chakra scalpel. It's probably only because of the fluctuating chakra in that region that my insides didn't get liquefied from all the power he used to rip me up.

"Ouch!" Hiro cringes at my words. "Jeez, you get into all the crazy fights, don't you? You're like a magnet for trouble." That would be a vast understatement.

"Well, Naruto and I are best friends, so I think it just comes with the territory." That's the best answer I can rally give them. I mean, what am I supposed to say? That I go looking for trouble on purpose? Because that would be a lie.

"Well, I think that the three of you are about to become magnets for even more trouble today." Yuki-Sensei appears in front of us, smiling ear to ear. "Lady Hokage has summoned the three of you to her office, immediately."

I raise an eyebrow at that. "All three of us?" If it had to do with the surgery, she probably would have sent Shizune to my door. But…what could she possibly want with all three of us?

Well, whatever it is, we're probably going to find out quite soon, seeing as our sensei is leading us straight into the Hokage tower. And, once inside, we're ushered int her office, where Tsunade is waiting for us, Shizune by her side, and Asuma against the wall, where Yuki-Sensei joins him. Shikamaru is standing in the middle of the office as we enter, an eyebrow raised at our presence. And I'm pretty sure all four of us are wondering the same thing. _Just what are we doing here?_

Tsunade looks between the four of us, before finally addressing us. "Thank you for coming. I'm sure that you have busy schedules, but I thought I should address this matter quickly." She leans back in her chair, looking…rather official, actually. "To be honest with you, I don't know what to do. With the final exam being suspended, it was the opinion of many that none of the students should pass this time around. That includes all four of you. However…I hear that the Third Hokage had nothing but the highest praise for all of you in your matches. It seems that he meant to recommend you for chunin."

My eyes widen as she starts writing something down. _He…was going to recommend all four of us…?_ But now I'm rather confused. _If we're in her office, then does that mean she plans to tell us that we're not getting promoted, or…_

"In fact, all those who observed your fights, and your proctors who observed you throughout the exams felt the same." She puts her hands together and looks across my team. "In particular, Ibiki was quite…taken with the three of you. The captain of the ANBU Black Ops was also quite complimentary with how the three of you handled the aftermath of the final rounds. And after witnessing firsthand what one of you is capable of, I'm inclined to believe that the praise across the board is well warranted. But in any case, my opinion doesn't matter very much at this point." She smiles at the four of us, rather proudly, if I do say so myself. "From this day forth, I hope you will strive to achieve a level of excellence worthy of those headbands. Congratulations, as of this moment, you stand as chunin."

"We're…chunin?" A thrill races through me at the nod she gives me. "We did it!" I grab my teammates and drag them into a hug. "I can't believe we did it!"

Akito laughs loudly. "Looks like it. Guess that fiasco of an exam was good for something after all."

"And fighting smarter, rather than harder pays off in the end." Hiro grins at us as the three of us wrap our arms around each other.

"All hail team philosophies, huh?" It's insane, I never thought that we'd actually get promoted after everything that happened. I thought that we would have to wait until the winter. But…I guess working hard and playing it smart really did pay off for us. Well, this time, at least.

"Yes, yes, you're promoted to chunin, now, the three of you can get out of my office and take your teachers with you. Ciara, stay, we have books to discuss." Tsunade keeps her eyes on me while shooing off the others.

Knowing what she wants, I nod, growing serious. "Of course. Where are we starting?"Time to get down to business and back to the books for a while.

She pushes a book across the desk for me, along with a diagram of the human body, and copious notes on the jutsu in question. "There. Now, familiarize yourself with it, and I'll work on getting you a mission assigned in a few days as your first on done as a chunin."

"Alright." Really, I don't care much about the mission right now, I just want to make sure that I memorize everything in sight for Lee's operation.

* * *

Hours later, after I've satisfied Tsunade's daily urge to have me study the procedure that we're planning, just in case Lee insists on continuing to be a shinobi, I escape her office and head home, planning to make myself something for dinner.

At least, that was the plan, until my teammates so rudely, or not so rudely, interrupted my walk. And of course, it's Hiro and Akito, which means that the two of them have grins plastered all over their faces. I blink and lean back a little. "Uh…why are you two smiling like that?"

Hiro pouts. "Aw…come on, we just wanted to grab you and go out to get something to eat. You know, to celebrate this morning."

This morning, as in our promotion to chunin. "Alright, alright, sorry, I'm just used to associating that kind of grin with getting pulled into helping out with a prank." I sigh and shake my head. "Fine, where are we going?"

"Well…" Akito pokes me in the ribs. "I was thinking barbecue, since you really need more meat on your bones."

I roll my eyes at the jab. "If you have a trick for inducing puberty, I'm all ears." It's not my fault that I'm tiny. I eat a ton, so it's not like I shouldn't be putting on weight. Then again, my body seems to burn calories like no tomorrow to keep up with the chakra requirements I've got. Between the seal, my elemental ninjutsu, and my medical ninjutsu, I burn off more chakra than most chunin have to begin with.

"Alright, then, time for barbecue!" Hiro gleefully drags me along, making quite the ruckus as we make our way through the streets.

Upon entering the place and getting a table, Akito immediately launches into the questions. He's always got questions. "So, what have you and Lady Hokage been up to whenever she summons you to her office? You seem quite used to being in there, and quite familiar with her."

I pick up a menu, then look at the both of them over it. "You remember during the Chunin Exams, when Lee and Gaara fought, and Lee got seriously injured?" The both nod, but stay silent, waiting for me to continue. "Well, he's going to need a surgery in the event that he wants to continue being a ninja. The odds…are not great, but I've been helping out with some medical theory that might help increase the chances of success dramatically."

"Wow…" Hiro blinks, looking pretty impressed. "And here I was stoked that I got offered a position as a teaching assistant at the academy. Being a personal medical assistant to the Hokage kinda trumps that, I guess. Oh well."

Akito smirks. "Well, we've all got our specialties. Not long after we left the room, Ibiki cornered me and offered me an official internship as part of the interrogation division. He said that after we shot our mouths off during the first exam, that he wanted to test out the full extent of my skills personally."

That prompts another of my eye rolls. "Jeez, that man just doesn't quit, does he?" I think he's had it out for us in the most comically affectionate way that the sadistic head of interrogation possibly could.

The server comes around, asking for our order, and in the end, we end up ordering three plates of beef, three of pork, and three of lamb. Because two here are boys, and I eat a ton. Not as much as Naruto, of course, but I can still pack it in when I'm hungry. And after all of the late nights up studying, and fewer meals than is healthy for me, this should help in building up any lost strength.

Akito nudges me, more gently this time. "So, I heard that you nd Naruto ran into some trouble on your way out. Anna talk about it?"

I twiddle my thumbs for a bit, trying to figure out what the hell to say about that. "Well…there's not really much to talk about. All I really know is that, for some reason, I saw my Uncle Chichi…" Jeez, that sounded juvenile. "Itachi Uchiha. I saw him for the first time in…five years, I think."

My teammates' eyes widen at that, and Akito lowers his voice. "But…he's gone rogue. You know that, right?"

"Until I met him out there…I had no idea he'd gone rogue. I just know that the last time I saw him was when he gave me his and Shisui's tanto, and left me his ANBU mask. He said that he did something bad, and he just disappeared on me. I never saw him again after that. Not until he came looking for Naruto, and found me right along with him."

"Hm…" Akito laces his fingers together. "Well, I'll see what I can dig up for you. I'm pretty hazy on the details myself, but I think I've got enough to look into it. And if worse comes to worst, I can always coerce some of the other interns into helping me look. They're all older than me, so they'd probably know something."

"Thanks…" I look up and see our food arriving, plate by plate. "Ah, thank you." I reach up to take some of the plates, relieving the burden from the server. After all, it's always good to be nice to hardworking wait staff. He puts down the last of the plates and nods to us before disappearing.

With the heat on the grill turned up, we start laying out the strips of meat, the smell of the rising into the air as they begin to cook. It's quite nice to be able to share a meal like this. It's been a long time since I've eaten with anyone other than Naruto. Not to say that I don't enjoy eating with Naruto, it's just that there tends to be a lot of ramen involved, and I do like eating other things.

Akito starts dutifully flipping pieces of meat over on the grill. "So…I'm heading into interrogation…Hiro's headed into teaching, and you're headed into medicine probably. I guess…this is why Yuki-Sensei said that about our team, how it was only put together for technical reasons."

I can hear the underlying sentiment in his words, that our friendship and alliance was only meant to be temporary, but I have to say that I disagree. "Even if we're working in different departments, the fact that our skill sets are so diverse means that if we're ever needed to pull together for a mission, means that we'll probably be able to complete it no problem. We work really well together, and that is never going to change."

Hiro grins at me as he picks up the first piece of his lamb meat. "Well, then here's to working together again, no matter how long it takes."

Akito picks up a piece of pork and tosses me some of my beef. "I'll second that."

"In that case, we're all in agreement." I hold up my chopsticks and smile. "Once a team, always a team." I smirk as the three of us start to stuff ourselves with the first half plate of our food. We've got plenty more to go, which means plenty more time to just sit down as a team.

A plate and a half of food later, I turn to Akito hopefully. "So…while I was on the road with Naruto and Jiraiya, the old perv taught me some water style. But it took me a while to get the hang of it. I seem to do better with the intangible elements, so I was wondering if you would teach me how to wield lightning."

Akito blinks, swallowing down his food with a loud gulp. "You want me to teach you lightning? But you've already got three changes in chakra nature, how are you going to add a fourth?"

Biting my lip, I lower the volume of my voice. "What I'm about to say doesn't leave your lips around anyone else, okay?" The two of them nod hurriedly, frowning. "My…family has a kekkai genkai, a bloodline ability. With it, comes an affinity for all five basic changes in chakra nature. Its a natural ability to use all five basic elements." Well, along with a few other things, but I still have no clue how to get to any of it yet. I was only five when everyone died, so it's not like they got around to teaching me the more intricate parts of the ability, I just got the basics. "It's a rare ability, even among the main house. My father had it, but none of his siblings did, as far as I know. And I think…that I got it from him. But I won't know for sure until I can use all five changes in chakra nature."

Their mouths look ready to drop open and fall on the floor. Akito recovers first. "So you're saying that if you got this bloodline ability, you'll know as soon as you can successfully use all five types of basic elemental ninjutsu?" I nod in affirmation and he taps his temple thoughtfully. "In that case, yeah, I'll teach you how to wield lightning. I mean, I'd give it a try anyway, but if you know that you can learn it, then at least there's no time being wasted."

"Right." I can respect that. After all, the three of us are newly promoted, so there's no time to be wasted right now.

Hiro starts spreading out some of his last plate of lamb. "So, does this mean that you're going to want to start on learning earth as well? Because if you do, I can totally help with that."

Well, that hadn't been the first thing on my mind, but I suppose that if he's offering. "Well, I was hoping to learn lightning first, since I'm pretty sure that earth is going to be the hardest for me. But if you're offering, I definitely won't turn down the instruction."

Hiro smirks. "Well, the trick to it is learning to be even more stubborn than a rock. Once you master that, the rest comes pretty easy." Then, he looks me up and down carefully. "Though, you're probably going to need some taijutsu training as well. I know that you're a badass when it comes to ninjutsu, but your taijutsu…"

"Sucks, I know." I may be fast and flexible, but unless I'm adding medical ninjutsu, all I can do is roll around with an opponent and take as many hits as I give. I'm just not physically strong enough to make much of an impact otherwise. And that's not a strategy that I want to end up using again. "Well, I don't really know if I have time to go into intensive taijutsu training right now, not with Lee's potential surgery coming up. But maybe…afterward."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Hiro nods, conceding the point. "So, we'll hold off on the earth style and taijutsu training for now. You can practice lightning in your spare time leading up to the surgery.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan!" Akito rolls out his own line of pork strips. "Now, let's finish eating. We've got a long evening ahead if we're going to get you started on learning how to wield lightning without electrocuting yourself."

That makes me a little nervous. "Well, at least I'm a medic…" And there's always the fact that my feathered friend will probably heal me right up if I do accidentally electrocute myself. "So, will we be taking over the training grounds tonight?"

Akito taps me on the head with his knuckles. "Yep. So be ready. We're probably going to destroy more than a few trees. This isn't going to be anything like what you saw Sasuke pull off. I specialize in big, radiating lightning attacks."

"That's fine." It's similar enough to my own style that I don't mind learning Akito's instead. "I typically don't fight in such close quarters anyway. Affecting a large area suits me better."

"Great, then let's dig in and get ready, we start in three hours." Akito flips his meat around, searing it to perfection as he hums slightly.

I scored the jackpot with my teammates. Not only do we get long, but now, I've got easily accessed teachers in ninjutsu. Once that I'm quite willing to learn from, but who also won't go especially easy on me because they think I cant take it. These two know better than that. It makes me rather excited to get started.

As we pull together the last of our food, I smile happily at my two teammates. "Well, we did it…" It's kind of strange to just sit around and let it sink in like that.

"Yeah, we did. And you know what this means, right?" Hiro grins at me, before stuffing his face full of the last of the lamb.

Akito doesn't even let me answer the rather ambiguous question. "Next up, jounin."

The suggestion hits me, and I can't help laughing at the two of them. "Right, next up is jounin." And it's weird to think about how our next goal is the same rank that our teacher has. We're not genin anymore…and that's actually a much weirder feeling than I expected it to be.

We're chunin now…and the next rank up is jounin. Our next goal.


	62. To the Land of Tea

**My explanation for this chapter is simple. Who the hell lets three genin take on a B-Rank mission without at least a chunin along for the ride? They're technically not even qualified for that mission level (Land of Waves aside, since no one expected to run into Zabuza). Then again, I suppose that's all technical, and not dependent on their level of strength.**

 **Now, let's start off with Sasuke, shall we?**

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

Once again, the three of us are standing in the mission assignment room, waiting for our next mission. Well, waiting for the Hokage to get here and assign us something, first. The dobe, of course, is acting like he's had way too much sugar this morning. Honestly, it's hard to believe that we get any missions done, what with his bad habit of doing things his way. And his way usually involves making the situation a lot more dangerous than it needs to be.

But, the idiot has as much energy as usual, judging by the huge grin on his face. "Okay let's do it, whatever the mission is, I'm psyched and ready to go!"

"Hn." I shake my head lightly. _He just never takes anything seriously._

"But…" Sakura looks around. "Where's Kakashi-Sensei?" That's a good question, but then again, this is Kakashi we're talking about. He's never going to be on time unless someone is about to be killed.

"Man, some teacher, he's always the last one here." And it's one of these rare instances where Naruto has a point. Kakashi seems incapable of being one time for anything.

"Kakashi won't be here at all." Lady Tsunade makes a rather sudden entrance with her assistant and that pet pig.

Naruto smiles brightly. "Grandma Tsunade! What's up!?"

She sits down with a sigh. "Stop calling me that, will you?"

"Um…Lady Hokage?" Sakura fidgets. "What's this about Kakashi-Sensei not coming?"

The Hokage crosses her arms. "You know our forces are stretched thin. All of our jounin are already busy on other missions, including Kakashi. Which is why I'll be assigning you a temporary chunin captain for this mission." She holds up a scroll. "It's a B-Rank escort mission, someone important."

Sakura blinks. "Important, really?" She's probably confused about it because we're still genin, and we typically don't get assigned the higher ranked missions. At least, not on purpose, anyway.

Tsunade puts the scroll down. "Of course, it could develop into an A-Rank mission if you run in trouble." That sounds rather familiar. The Land of Waves is ringing a few bells.

"So, who do we escort." I'd rather get this mission started as soon as possible. "And who is coming with us?" I just hope that whoever it is isn't going to be useless or slow us down.

Tsunade laces her fingers together. "I don't know who you're escorting. But as for who your captain is, I don't think you'll have any complaints. She's a newly promoted chunin that you all know pretty well." She turns towards the open door. "You can come in now."

"I'm here." A familiar head pokes around the side of the door, and in walks Ciara, dressed and equipped for an escort mission. She glances at us, nodding a slightly. "I should have figured that you would give it to them. It explains why you pulled me away from the hospital for a mission."

"Ciara!" Naruto grins widely. "I didn't know that you made chunin! Why didn't you tell me!?"

She shrugs easily. "Maybe because it only happened yesterday? And I spent all evening with my teammates, so I didn't have the chance to really tell anyone."

Tsunade coughs. "Anyway, you can all catch up on things on your way to the mission."

"Oh yeah!" Naruto gets himself excited again. "About who we're escorting…what do you mean you don't know?"

Tsunade picks up the scroll again. "Every four years, our neighbor, the Land of Tea, holds a dedication ceremony at the Great Todoroki Shrine. And each time, we're asked to escort a runner who will participate in the race that's part of the ceremonies." That sounds simple enough. "This year, the messengers who were bringing the request were attacked before they could get here."

Ciara's eyes widen. "Wait, you mean that group of new arrivals who came into the emergency room this morning? The ones who were attacked with a senbon rain shower?"

Tsunade nods. "Do you have anything to report on their condition?"

Ciara smiles slightly. "They're a bit banged up, and they'll be sore for a while, but they should make a full recovery very soon. Luckily, whoever attacked them didn't hit anything vital, so their lives were never in serious danger. But it was more than enough to stop them in their tracks, and kept them pinned down for a while."

"Good." Tsunade seems more than satisfied with the report.

"But…who attacked them?" Predictably, an attack like this bothers Naruto. He's always being way too soft, it's a wonder that he can attack anyone at all.

Sakura frowns. "I'm sorry, but I'm still not following this story very well."

"Well, don't worry about that now. When you meet Boss Jirocho, he'll fill you in on everything." As Tsunade finishes, a kind of comprehension flashes across Ciara's face.

"When we meet Boss Jirocho?" There's a flicker of recognition that flashes across Naruto's face. "Ah! That gambler guy we met!" It must be some kind of detail from when Naruto and Ciara left the village to help find Tsunade, that's the only thing that would explain their identical reactions.

Tsunade stands up. "That's everything I know. Now, no wasting time, they're expecting you in the Land of Tea by the end of the day. So get moving!"

I nod quickly. "Got it." My eyes roam over towards our temporary captain. _So…we're getting a green captain. I suppose it could be worse, at least we've worked with her before. And maybe…I can use the opportunity to ask a few questions that have been eating at me since she visited me in the hospital._

Naruto grins at Ciara, before turning to Tsunade. "Great, don't worry! You got it! You can count on us!"

Ciara smirks slightly. "Then how about you three go home and pack for a week long mission. I'll be waiting for you at the front gate in half an hour. So don't be like that distracted teacher of yours. Because I'm not going to be late."

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

As the three of them race out of the room, I glance over at Tsunade with a smile. "You made this my first mission as a team leader on purpose."

A slight smirk crosses her face. "I just thought that the mission would be more successful if I sent someone familiar with Jirocho. Naruto fits the bill, and since you happen to be a chunin who can work well with these three, you can replace Kakashi, who is currently unavailable."

Her reasoning amuses me, but it's not like she's wrong. "Well, that's certainly a convenient coincidence." I turn toward the door and laugh. "See you later, Granny Tsunade."

"You brat!" But I don't stick around long enough to hear her complain about being called a grandma.

Half half an hour later, three figures approach the gates, packed and ready to head out to the Land of Tea. I have to resist the urge to laugh. Looks like it really is Kakashi who is always making them late. Someone really needs to get that guy a watch, preferably one with an alarm. But in any case, it looks like it's time to get this mission started.

I raise my hand and wave to them. "Right on time! Let's get going!"

* * *

The road ahead of us involves hours upon hours of alternating between long periods of running and short period of rest. Since we only have until the end of the day to get there, we've done our best to make good time. Of course, I know very well how much punishment our bodies can take, so I've made sure to never push too hard, no matter how much Naruto might insist that we can go faster. Not only is it my duty as captain to make sure that nothing happens to them on my watch, but also as the team medic.

Besides, one of us has to be the responsible one, and I would never expect Naruto to do it.

While I walk at the front of the group, Naruto hangs back next to his pink-haired crush. "Hey, Sakura, you hungry at all?" Naruto is being so obvious that it's painful.

"A little bit, maybe." Sakura is falling prey to the hair easily.

Naruto latches on immediately. "Hey, good idea, lunch break! And what a coincidence, there just happens to be a tea house right there!" He points on ahead to the wooden tea house poking out of the trees. And I get the feeling that he timed this on purpose.

I roll my eyes at his antics. "Alright, I suppose that we can stop for some lunch. We've been traveling for three hours already, and it's true that we're a bit overdue for lunch."

"Then let's go!" Naruto races ahead like his feet are on fire.

"Wait, Naruto!" Sakura reaches forward, then jogs past us, trying to catch up to Naruto as we get close to the tea house.

Sasuke sighs next to me. "Those two are so annoying."

I shoot him a sideways glance and smirk. "Well, at least things are never boring with them around. Come on, we'd better go and keep an eye on them." I pick up my pace a little and close the distance to the tea house. _I just hope that they have good food._

We barely walk in before Naruto drags us to a table and an older lady comes to serve us each a cup of tea. "What will you be having?"

"Some sweet bean soup!" Naruto grins, and I already know that he's thinking about how much fun it's going to be once he gets some sugar in his system. But I know well that Naruto and sugar are a very dangerous combination.

Sakura thinks it over for a second. "I'll have the dumplings please." She glances over towards Sasuke, who is sitting across from me. "And you, Sasuke?"

He cringes slightly. "Just rice." His eyes flick to me, as though expecting me to order something outrageous.

I look up at the lady and smile. "Sweet dumplings for me, and if you have any sour syrup, I'd like some of that too." But as my mind turns to my sweet tooth, it inevitably turns to the one who instilled it in me in the first place. Itachi.

The kind old lady nods. "Very good, I'll be back in a moment." She walks away, leaving the four of us to ourselves for now. And out of the corner of my eye, I notice that there's one other patron, a boy sitting in the corner of the shop.

"I just hope we get some fighting in!" Naruto beams happily, getting far too eager for what we should all hope is just a simple escort mission. If all goes well, we'll be in and out of the Land of Tea without any injuries. Though on the other hand, if Naruto gets the fighting that he wants, then Tsunade will be right about this becoming an A-Rank mission.

Sakura jumps on him quickly. "Don't you dare go making trouble, Naruto, not this time." The boy from the corner gets up and starts walking towards us. I watch him discreetly out of the corner of my eye as he enters my peripheral vision.

Naruto sighs. "I won't." I suppose that we'll just have to wait and see how long that lasts. Right now, Naruto can't stay calm to save his life. But I'm sure that he'll get better with time.

The boy passes right by our table, then stops next to Sakura. "Just sitting around in the shade, sucking down sweet bean soup? A ninja's life is pretty cushy." He's left out the parts where each mission we go on could end with us turning up dead, but I suppose that I would be a minor detail to anyone who isn't a ninja.

"What'd you say!?" Naruto twitches, and I grab onto the leg of his pants to keep him from jumping on the guy. The last thing we need is to start this mission off with Naruto attacking a civilian. Because judging by the look and feel off this guy, he's not a ninja. But that doesn't mean that he's not something else. Either way, it would be a really bad idea to get into a fistfight here.

The boy smirks. "Guess you don't get much action in the Leaf Village, judging by how out of shape you look." He's determined to be as offensive as possible, while still sounding polite. And I hate it. In my eyes, if you're trying to be offensive, you shouldn't be passive aggressive about it. Well, unless you're dealing with us people of great political power. That might require a little more diplomacy, and a few more subtle insults.

Naruto slams his hand down on the table and my hand slips off his leg as he jumps to his feet. "That does it!"

But the boy ignores him to stare at Sakura. "Hey, where'd you come from, sweetie? I didn't see you sitting here. I didn't mean you, of course." His obvious attempts at flirting with her actually make me a little sick. Though I am happy that he hasn't tried to flirt with me, I wouldn't take it nearly as calmly as Sakura.

Sakura straightens with a start. "Thank you." Though she has the distinct sound of not being very thankful at all.

The boy leans down towards her. "Hello there, I'm Idate Morino. So, uh…what do they call you?"

"You gonna punch him in the nose, Sakura, or do ya want me to!?" Naruto draws back a fist, ready to put this guy in his place at a moment's notice.

All this Idate guy hears is her name. "Sakura, huh? That's a beautiful name. Well then, since fate has brought us together, isn't it time we talked about our future?" I fight the urge to gag at his insinuations.

Sakura's face erupts with a bright pink blush. "Uh, I'm not sure but…what future?" She gets flustered way too easily, and I thought that Sasuke was the only one who could make her face turn that color.

"You know, the part where you give up this ridiculous ninja business and run away with me." And now he's gone and crossed the line. Insulting us, specifically, is one thing. Insulting our entire lifestyle and line of work is another.

Naruto jumps up, planning to give this guy a piece of his mind. But I beat him to it and force him back into his seat as I stand up. "If you don't mind, could you leave us to our mission? I can't have you harassing a member of my team, even under the guise of innocent flirting. So back off and walk away." I hold my gaze steady and stare him right in the eye. I suppose that I should be glad for the moment that I'm female, because that seems to have been enough to keep his attention focused on me while I gave my spiel. Though I'm clearly not attractive enough for him to flirt with, which is a bonus. I would lose mot temper quickly with this flake.

He looks me up and down, then clicks his tongue. "Don't worry, I was just kidding around." Then, his gaze hardens. "But the rest of it, that's no joke, if there's one thing I can't stand, it's a ninja! You better go on back where you came from or there'll be trouble, I'm warning you!"

And like clockwork, Naruto comes to my defense. "Oh yeah!? Well why wait? Bring it on, tough guy!" He leans forward and glass angrily at Idate. And I could swear that I can see lightning sparking between the two, which is weird, since lightning is supposed to be Sasuke's deal.

"Calm down, Naruto." Sakura steps in, obviously to try and prevent a disaster.

Thankfully, Sasuke finally breaks his silence. "She's right, just ignore the punk, we don't have the time."

Naruto takes his eyes off of Idate to give Sasuke a piece of his mind. "Get out of here, Sasuke! After what that guy said, don't you have any ninja pride?" While Naruto yells, Idate takes the opportunity to race out the door like there's a demon on his heels. "You can ignore it if you want, I'm gonna flatten him!" And only when he stops talking and turns back to where Idate once stood, does he realize that his opponent is gone. Trust Naruto to be too busy arguing one-sidedly with Sasuke to focus on the one who got him mad in the first place.

Sakura's eyes widen. "He disappeared."

Sasuke's eyes shoot open in alarm, and he looks around in bewilderment. It's like he can't believe that somehow, this guy disappeared out from under us.

"Ugh! I hate that! He gets in his little dig and runs away!" Naruto is clearly displeased with his argument being interrupted. If there's anything he loves as much as ramen, it's an argument.

But there's something fishy, so I raise an eyebrow at all of them. "Wait, you didn't see him leave?" It's something of a surprise, since

I would have expected them to be a little more vigilant than that, especially Sasuke. Though that does explain why he looked so shocked a few moments ago.

Naruto turns on me. "If you saw him leave, then why didn't you say anything!?"

I shrug. "We wanted him to leave us alone, so I decided to just let him leave without making a fuss. It works out better that way. He's clearly a jerk, so I'd rather not suffer his company for longer than I have to. If we see him again, just ignore his antics." Not that I really have any faith that Naruto won't rise to that guy's bait if we do see each other again. He's just way too easy to rile up.

The old lady waitress comes back to our table. "Here you go, thank you for waiting." Her arrival with the food pacifies Naruto slightly, and he sits back down. That idols the stop him from grumbling, though. The lady puts down a couple of pieces of paper. "I'll take these whenever you're ready."

As I start dipping my dumplings into the sour sauce, which tastes like it could be plum sauce, Sakura glances at the papers. "Hey, what's this?" She picks them up. "Why two bills?"

The lady turns around. "Yours, and your young friend that just left. He said you'd be paying for him."

It takes a second for it to sink in, but when it does, Sakura starts grinding her teeth, and Naruto gets loud. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I should have flattened him when I had the chance!"

I notice Sasuke leaning down and pressing his ear to the floor, but judging by how fast that Idate ran out of here, he's probably long gone by now. He ran off at a speed that impressed even me. But now that I the about it, he said that his name was Idate Morino. And the only person I know of with a name like that is Ibiki Morino. It makes me wonder if the two of them are related, somehow. Distant relatives, perhaps?

Naruto growls and gets to his feet. "That's it! He's crossed the line, making fools of us! I'm gonna catch that stupid jerk!" Naruto grabs his backpack, slings it over his shoulder, and races out of the tea house, leaving his sweet bean soup behind.

Sakura picks up her own backpack, so I roll my eyes and flick them to the door. She nods and slings her own backpack over her shoulder. "We've got to go, Ma'am, thanks!"

The lady looks bewildered. "Come again…" Then he blinks bemusedly. "These young people today, they're always in such a hurry."

"Probably doesn't help that we're a bit high strung because we're out on a mission…" I reach for the sweet bean soup and then into my medical bag for a container and some wrappings. I tip the sweet bean soup into a bottle and seal it up tight, then reach for Sakura's dumplings and tuck them away in a cloth wrapper. Lastly, I pull some money from my pocket and lay it down on the table, before turning to Sasuke. "You feel like chasing them?" I notice that his bowl of rice is already empty, but it doesn't surprise me that he would eat quickly. He never has been one to waste time. I drench the last of my dumplings in the sauce and shove the stick into my mouth.

"Hn." He glances out the door, looking rather impatient. Then, he hefty his own backpack over his shoulder and stands up. "Let's go." I spit the stick out and jump to my feet as well.

Without wasting another moment, the two of us race out the door of the tea house, following the tracks left behind by a couple of not so stealthy teammates. Of course, seeing as it's just Naruto and Sakura that we're trying to catch up to, Sasuke and I have no problem overtaking them, despite their head start.

Sasuke jumps ahead of me and runs next to Sakura. "I don't know what this kid's training is, but he's incredibly fast." Incredibly fast is an understatement, since I've never seen anyone as naturally light footed as that Idate. His skills might have made him a good ninja, but his disposition conveys a deep sense of irresponsibility and selfishness. And I'm not sure if that would get him killed faster, or his teammates.

"Who could he be?" Sakura poses a very good question. And it's one that might be very useful to find out. Especially since he shares a surname with one of our village's most ruthless and intelligent jounin.

Naruto grumbles. "Who cares! He's toast when I catch up with him!"

"Don't get carried away, Naruto. There are rules about getting tangled up with civilians." I pick up the pace, the four of us racing through the trees, weaving and dodging branches that seem to pop up out of nowhere.

Fortunately, out quarry trips over his own two feet and gets himself stuck in a tree, giving us more than enough opportunity to catch up and surround him. I hang out with Naruto on one wide, while Sasuke and Sakura take the other.

The kid groans slightly, dropping from the tree. "All the speed in the world won't help me if I don't watch where I'm going."

"Hah, serves you right." Naruto looks down at him with a smug smirk.

Sasuke, on the other hand, is decidedly less pleased. "You've got a lot of nerve. Did you think you'd get away with it?

The kid looks around at us, before falling to his knees and pressing his face down. "I'm sorry! I couldn't pay the bill! All my money had been stolen. And then you guys came and…I shouldn't have done it, but I didn't know what else to do." He's shaking…but I get the distinct feeling, as we get close to him, that it's crocodile tears.

Sakura, on the other hand, immediately becomes empathetic. "Oh, you're kidding, all of your money?"

"Well, why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Naruto frowns, then shakes his head as something drops from the tree behind us as smacks him square on the noggin. "What's this thing?"

As he reaches for it, the kid grabs for it. "Hands off!" Then, he flips off the ground and away from us. "This belongs to me." And he protectively tucks it away into his clothes. Then, he reaches down to his shins, where he unclips his cloth guards. And, looking at the insides of them as he hold them up, I get a sense of deja-vu. "On your mark, get set, go!" He drops them to the ground, and they kick up clouds of dust just like Lee's leg weights.

He takes off, and when the dust clears, Sakura points ahead. "There! He's off and running again!"

"We'll see about that!" Naruto takes off, leaving the rest of us to play catch-up for a couple of seconds.

As we race after him, Sasuke grimaces. "This kid's asking for it."

"Is this guy for real?" Sakura seems more than a little impressed and alarmed by the sheer speed of this guy.

"I told you, he's fast!" Sasuke's dark eyes stay trained on him, but I'm not entirely sure that this is what he originally meant when he said fast. Because this kid is outrunning ninja.

Naruto's blue eyes go wide. "What's going on? He's getting further away every second."

Eventually, we all come to a stop, breathing hard. And Sakura shakes her head, eyes wide. "We'll never catch him, he's out of our league."

Naruto glares into the distance. "Ciara, you think you could catch him if you left your stuff here and went solo?"

I glance at him, then nod. "I could, but that would mean leaving the three of you behind here. And as the captain and medical ninja, I can't do that. Both because it would mean leaving my duties as captain, as well as removing protection from the medical specialist, breaking two rules in one go. It's not an option. And frankly, it's not worth it."

"Fine…" Naruto hangs his head. "But if I ever see that kid again, he'd better watch out."

"Whatever…now let's just get back to our mission." On the bright side, though, chasing after the kid has gotten us a lot closer to the Land of Tea, and pretty fast too. "We have a few more hours of walking ahead of us." I drop from the trees and feel my feet hit solid ground. "Come on."

"Right." Naruto drops down behind me, followed by the other two. And while none of them are too pleased about recent events, getting back to our mission is the top priority right now. I will make sure that this mission is a success, and that we all make it back in one piece.

Then, I reach back into my bag and take out the packages of food. "By the way, catch!" I toss the soup to Naruto, and the dumplings to Sakura. "You two forgot your food, so I packed it up and brought it with us."

"Oh, thank you." Sakura unwraps her dumplings, before proceeding to pop the first into her mouth.

"Yeah, you're the greatest!" Naruto twists the lid off the soup, before starting to chug it down.

I snot in amusement and keep my eyes on the road ahead. _Well, better for them to eat now. Who knows when we'll have our next chance._ After all, this mission could get complicated, knowing our track record. It's a track record that hopefully, we'll be breaking with this mission.

Realistically, though...I'm not holding out much hope.


	63. The Race Begins

**Wow, I didn't think I'd get another update in so quickly, but I suppose that's what happens when I'm in the zone. It doesn't happen often, so I'm trying to make the most of it while it's here. At this rate, I might be done this arc by tomorrow.**

* * *

Fortunately, the rest of the walk to the client's residence in the Land of Tea proceeds without further incident, and we're ushered inside quickly. The weirdest part, of course, is that I'm here in place of Kakashi.

He nods to us as we enter the room. I sit directly in front of the client, an older man in a blue and gray haori and kimono. "Welcome, and thank you all for coming."

Naruto, true to his style, approaches Boss Jirocho with a fairly serious expression. "I bid you greetings and offer you my services. I have come from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, which is also the place of my birth. I was raised on ramen and hard work, and given the family name of Uzumaki. But I'm known to everyone as-"

Sasuke sighs and crosses his arms irritably. "As the knucklehead."

"As the knucklehead!" Naruto affirms Sasuke's words without even thinking about it. "Argh, very funny!" The sarcasm is strong with this one.

Thankfully, the old man laughs. "You haven't changed at all, I see."

"And you haven't changed either, big guy!" Naruto just grins away.

"And…we're already embarrassing ourselves, wonderful…" I point at the floor, not even looking at Naruto. "Will you just sit, already?"

Jirocho just chuckles at my own irritation. "It's fine, the boy has spirit, I like that." Then, he smiles at me. "And when last I saw you, you were still unconscious from that battle you fought. I hope that you healed well."

Well, if he's fine with socializing, then I guess it's alright to relax a bit. So, I smile. "Yes, my injuries have healed thoroughly. I was asleep a whole week, though, so don't feel like I was ignoring you on purpose."

"Of course not." He smiles kindly at me,and I can feel all the tension draining from me.

Sasuke sits back to the right, obviously getting impatient. "Now that we're done with the greetings, maybe we should get down to it. The Fifth Hokage told us you would explain what you want us to do."

"Yes, she said that this was an escort mission, B-Rank, but not much else." I feel myself slipping into mission mode. "Because of the lack of details we were given, I assume that you want to keep this mission as quiet as possible for the time being."

He nods, then coughs slightly. "Yes. You know about the dedication ceremonies held at the Great Todoroki Shrine every four years, don't you?"

"Oh uh, well…not really." Naruto scratches his head sheepishly.

I roll my eyes and shake my head. "She mentioned it when we were given the mission, but nothing else."

"I see." He sighs slightly. "It all started long ago. The legend goes that in ancient times, there came a terrible storm. In desperation, the people dedicated the Ryuuko jewels to the Great Todoroki Shrine. It worked, the storm subsided. And now, the ceremony's repeated every four years. At first, it was just a re-dedication of the jewels, then it became a festival and a race, with the winner of the race being hailed as a great hero."

Well, all of this sounds right to me so far. Most festival start out as rituals, honoring some kind of shrine or deity, or commemorating an event or battle. But this kind of ritual hardly merits having ninja guards involved.

His face soon becomes stern. "But in recent years, what once was a friendly race has taken on a more troubling aspect. For generations, Port Degurashi has been divided between two families. The Wasabi, and the Wagarashi, two rival gambling organizations. Both families wanted control of the town, which eventually led to disputes. These disputes became increasingly violent, sometimes resulting in all-out battles. The rest of the townspeople were caught in the crossfire. Many were injured or worse. Finally, in an effort to end the cycle of violence, our district leader called on both sides to get together and come to an agreement. Henceforth, control of the town would not be decided by street brawls, but by a competition."

Ah…and now it makes sense. To me, at least, Sakura…not so much. "What kind of competition?"

"The race, right?" Pieces of the puzzle start clicking together in my head. "Why come up with a new competition when you already have one readily available…"

"Exactly." He smiles softly at the assessment. "The race is run every four years at the Great Todoroki Shrine dedication ceremony. Four years ago, the Wagarashi beat us soundly by hiring a ninja. And we've found out they've done the same this year. That's why we sent messengers to you, seeking your help. It was our way of leveling the playing field. But before they could reach your village, they were attacked, ambushed."

"Yes, by someone who wielded senbon very liberally." I remember the sight of them coming into the emergency room this morning. "It should please you to know that your messengers are alive. I tended to them myself when they arrived in the village this morning, injured, but with no immediate threat to their lives. Whoever attacked them wasn't trying to kill them, it was meant to send a message."

"Yes, I assume so." His expression softens further. "And you have my thanks for tending to their wounds. I would hate to lose any of my men."

"Of course." I incline my head slightly, respectfully, in acknowledgment of his thanks. "So I take it that our mission is to ensure that your representative can run a clean race?" I can't imagine that he would hire us for the sake of cheating through the race. He seems more the kind of man who would prefer to win fair and square.

"Exactly…" Then, he bends down and bows extremely respectfully to us. "I beg you, please lend our family your strength. If we lose again, it means the Wagarashi will control this town for four more years."

"And I take it that the Wagarashi aren't particularly pleasant, then…" Especially considering the message that their ninja seems to have tried sending to intimidate us. "Alright."

Naruto grins and pats his chest. "Not gonna happen, I'm on the job."

"So, who are we supposed to escort, anyway?" Sasuke crosses his arms, a clear sign that he's feeling restless. Of course, he's not the only one.

Boss Jirocho lifts his head, looking rather elated. "Excellent, that means you'll take the job!" He claps his hands, summoning someone to the paper screen.

"Yes Boss, you wanted me?" And I'll be damned, the one who opens the door, the target for our escort mission, is that same kid from earlier.

Which, of course, means that it comes as no surprise that Naruto is on his feet, pointing and making funny surprised noises in an instant. Personally, I feel like banging my head against the wall. But that feels like it might be too dramatic.

"So, you already know each other? That makes everything easier." Jirocho is…overly optimistic about that part.

Sighing, I shake my head. "I wouldn't count on that…we kind of got off on the wrong foot earlier, to put it lightly."

"I see…" He looks between us and his runner. "Well, then why don't all of you go and explore the town for the rest of the afternoon? Idate, show them the way."

The boy, Idate, glares at us sourly. "Fine…" Seems like there's a million places he'd rather be, instead of playing tour guide to a bunch of ninja.

Still, he takes us out into the town, and he and Naruto promptly decide to wander off. I stick around Sakura and Sasuke, seeing as it would be a bad idea for our group to split up too much.

So, in the spirit of exploring, we go into the market and have a look around the shops. One in particular is rather interesting. Someone must have seen the Sannin duking it out, because there are little figurines of Orochimaru's snake summon, Tsunade's slug summon, who I found out during one of out many study sessions is named Katsuyu. She's rather friendly for a slug, expect for the spitting acid part. And there's a figurine of Gamabunta as well. Though it makes me wonder how anyone could have gotten him to stay still long enough to pose for the little model.

Sakura picks up a little Gamabunta figurine, looking rather appalled at the price. And the shopkeeper approaches us, looking apologetic. "I know what you're thinking…too expensive?"

"Oh, no, uh…" Sakura tries her best to be polite and deny it, but she's honestly a terrible liar.

The shopkeeper smiles sadly. "Believe me, I don't like having to charge that much, but the Wagarashi family sets the prices."

There's a sudden crash behind us, and I tune out the shopkeeper as I whirl around, looking for the source of the disturbance. And it's not hard to find, it's right across the street. And it looks like the shopkeeper over there has been thrown through his own door. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"What's wrong with you? When we want something, we take it, got it? You wouldn't even be in business if it weren't for the Wagarashi." It looks like the thugs have a leader, if a bad one.

The shopkeep cowers on the ground. "I know, I know! It's just…to take it without paying me for it…"

"Is called stealing." I glare across the street at them. "Which makes you thieves, criminals."

"Oh yeah?" The head thug looks over at me, turning his nose up. "Well who asked you, bitch? Stay out of it!" Right, as is that was gonna work. "You're really not gettin' this are ya?" The thug cracks his knuckles menacingly, before picking up the poor shopkeeper, ignoring me completely.

And that's where I draw the line.

Its good to know, though, that I'm not the only one who moves in that instant. While I pull the shopkeeper away from the thug, Sasuke catches the punch easily, shocking the thug. "What the-who are you!?"

"Why don't you and your friends take a hike?" Oh boy, Sasuke is in his no nonsense mode. If these guys are smart, they'll just make a break for it and run.

But they're not that smart. "You asked for it, punk!"

I turn the shopkeeper to face me, my hands glowing with chakra as I search him for injuries. "Tell me, are you in pain anywhere?"

"Uh, well…my hands, andmy back, but…what about your friend?" He looks back uncertainly at the one-sided brawl going down.

"He'll be fine. Those thugs don't stand a chance against him, even when he's barely putting in the effort to move." I move my attention to the man's lightly cut hands, which took the brunt of the impact, as well as his spine, to make sure that there's no permanent damage. Luckily, there is none.

A minute later, I glance back to see Sasuke's handiwork, and the three thugs dragging themselves off. I raise an eyebrow at Sasuke, who shrugs. "It worked."

"I can see that…" Then, I look down to see the shopkeeper's stolen wallet on the ground. "Am I the only one having a Land of Waves flashback right now? I seem to remember Gato and his thugs doing much the same there as the Wagarashi seem to be doing to this place." All that's missing is… "What do you wanna bet we're gonna run into a powerful rogue ninja before this is all over?"

"You're paranoid. We're going to be fine." Yeah, Sasuke says that, but with our track record…well, I wouldn't put it past us to end up with at least two of us gravely injured, and one needing to be put in the hospital.

I sigh and shake my head. "Well, at least I'm here. Best to have a medic on hand, just in case."

"Are you almost done?" Sasuke looks down at me, his eyes fixing on where my hands are, tending to the man's injuries. "We should get going soon."

"Yes, I'm almost done." I finish sealing up the wounds on the shopkeeper's hands. "There you go, all done."

He rubs his hands together, then looks up at me. "Thank you, Miss. But…what are you here for?"

I tilt my head to the side, revealing the emblem on my headband. "We're ninja from the Hidden Leaf. The Wasabi family asked us to be here." Best not to tell him for what, though.

"Oh, I see…" He smiles slightly. "Thank you for your help, Miss."

"Of course…you're welcome." It is, after all, my duty as a medic to treat injuries wherever I see them. "Now, keep your wits about you, those hooligans could be back any time."

"Well, look at those men run!" The other shopkeeper walks over with Sakura. "Now, if only the Wasabi family can win the race, we'll be through with them for good."

I look up at the sky and exhale a loud breath. "The race starts tonight…we'd better get going." Especially if we're going to make sure that Idate has a fair shot at winning this race.

* * *

The sun is nearly rising by the time the fireworks to announce the race start going off. And though I honestly don't see the point in starting a race so early in the morning, I'm not the one organizing it, so I've got no say.

Naruto looks around at the gathered crowd. "Wow…I had no idea it was such a big deal. So…what kind of race is it anyway?"

Sakura pulls out a map from her tool pouch. "You know, the kind with a start and a finish. Listen carefully, and I'll explain." And that's when I tune her out. I have no interest in hearing her dumb down the course for Naruto.

Earlier, I took the liberty of looking at a map of the area, and memorizing the topography.

Finally, Sakura puts away the map. "So, that's it as far as the basic rules go. But, other than that, just about anything goes. Shortcuts, dirty tricks, anything."

"That's why hiring ninja to hep you out is okay too."Sasuke says it like it's no big deal. Honestly, a lot of people have a lot to learn about the spirit of competition. There shouldn't be any ninja involved in this race, period. We're here out of desperation, nothing more.

Naruto blinks. "Okay…so where are the ninja the other side hired?"

"They're keeping a low profile, but they're around. So watch your step, okay Naruto?" And Sakura's point is precisely what worries me. We have no idea who the ninja are or where they come from. That puts us, who are sitting around out in the open, at a disadvantage.

Idate, still warming up,looks back at us over his shoulder. "I don't care what you guys do, but whatever happens, just stay away from me."

"Say what!?" Naruto makes a move for him, but I hold my friend back.

"I've got a race to run, I don't want you in my way." Idate's attitude it really getting on my nerves.

So while Sakura holds Naruto back, I stare down Idate. "Your wishes will be taken into consideration, but at the end of the day, how close we stay to you is my call, not yours. So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, but I guarantee you that when I'm on a mission, I'm almost impossible to shake. And you're definitely not fast enough to shake me off your tail. Keep that in mind."

"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." Idate may be taking it as a challenge, but he's foolish to do so. It's not a bluff, not in the slightest.

Then, the loudspeaker turns on, grabbing our attention. "Attention! Attention! The Great Todoroki Shrine Race is about to begin! Runnin for the Wasabi…Idate Morino! Running for the Wagarashi, Fokusuke Hikyakuya!"

I glance at Idate, my eyes narrowing. _Morino…? As in Ibiki Morino? The head of the interrogation division?_ I'm not entirely sure how common or rare the name is, but seeing as the only other Morino I've heard of lives in the Leaf… _Coincidence? Or…are they related somehow? In which case…why is Idate here of all places?_

The crowd is going wild as the loudspeaker chimes again. "Runners, take your marks!" There's a long pause, before it chimes again. "GO!"

The two of them take off running, and for some reason, Idate takes off running in an entirely different direction. I frown at the sight, before a rumble resounds inside me. _Follow the boy…he is taking advantage of the direction of the winds…_

I look up into the sky, and notice the way that the clouds are moving. Then, I smile. "That sneaky little…" I take off at a run and signal to the team. "Alright, let's go!"

"What!?" Sasuke takes off after me, completely confused, and more than a little mad. "What's that idiot doing!?"

I hear similar complaints from the other two, so I just grin back at them. "He's doing something brilliant! Trust him!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Naruto has no idea what Idate is trying to pull off. And I can't blame him. After all, I'm the wind specialist here.

"Just follow me!" I take off through the trees, keeping an eye on Idate as he runs.

"Yeah, yeah, fine, we'll catch up to him pretty soon." Naruto races alongside me, keeping pace pretty well.

"But it's too late now." Sakura's anxiety is starting to show. "He won't be able to win this far away from the port."

"I don't know, he might have planned to come this way from the very beginning." I can feel Sasuke frowning at my back. "What were you talking about earlier when you said that Idate was doing something brilliant?"

I chuckle at the question. "Well, none of you are wind types, so I didn't expect you to get it, but…" I point up at the clouds. "If you watched the cloud movement back at the port, you would realize that the other guy was going to be sailing right into a headwind. Idate must have noticed it, and gone north, searching for a tailwind to take him across the bay quickly. The other guy is going to get held up big time out on the open water."

"Oh…I get it!" Naruto grins, before sprinting ahead to keep pace with Idate.

"So that's it…" Sasuke picks up the pace a little, keeping time with me. "So, how long did it take you to figure it out?"

I smirk at him. "I figured it out just before I started running."

"That so…" I can hear the smirk in his voice more than I can see it. "In that case…" He pauses, looking down. "What the?"

Idate, running down below us on the edge of a cliff, has the ground just starting to give way beneath him, and Sakura notices quickly. "Watch out!"

"I don't think they've even noticed it." Sasuke's frown deepens.

"This is genjutsu…"Sakura looks around, as though trying to find the caster.

I, on the other hand, feel a little frustrated. "And this is precisely why I'm glad that I'm immune to genjutsu. I don't have to risk falling over the side of a cliff."

Sakura looks at me funny. "Say…why are you immune to genjutsu, anyway? It's like…it doesn't even exist to you."

I should have known that she wouldn't just take it at face value. "I don't really want to talk about the hows and whys, but the point is that low level genjutsu, at least, doesn't work on me. I don't know about the higher level stuff, since I've never been hit with more than a moderately strong genjutsu, but…anyway, it's just a useful skill to have in this instance." Then, I look down to see them both stopped. "Looks like they've figured out that they're in a genjutsu."

Yeah…" Sakura squints at them just as Idate starts running again, having thought that he released the genjutsu. "Hey, no! Don't go that way!"

"Damn it…" I leap down from the trees, crashing right through the genjutsu, and tapping Naruto out of it. "Go!" I attach a length of rope to Naruto's leg, and he starts running over the side of the cliff, diving down towards where Idate has fallen over. "Sakura, Sasuke!"

"Right!" Sasuke leaps down and takes hold of the rope in frontof me, bearing the brunt of the weight himself as it hooks on the edge of the cliff. Sakura takes a position behind me, where we're in a good place to play a bit of tug of war with gravity. All the while, my eyes are on the lookout for whoever cast that genjutsu in the first place.

Sakura sighs. "Man, that was a close one."

"Someone set up one genjutsu on top of another." Sasuke shuffles back, pulling the rope over his shoulders. "That's not very easy to pull off."

"And…there's the downside to my genjutsu immunity. Not only can I not get caught by low level genjutsu, I can't see it at all. If someone tries to hit me with it, it's not a problem. But if someone else gets hit with it…I have no idea what they're seeing."

"Guess that strength of yours has its own weakness." Because yes, I needed Sasuke to point that out.

Rolling my eyes, I pull harder on the rope. "Hey, I never said I was perfect." Finally, I can see the bottom of Naruto's shoe. "Alright, you two hold it, I'll go pull them up." The two of them nod and lock the rope in place, allowing me the chance to let go and rush to the edge of the cliff. Reaching my hand down, I grab hold of Idate first. "Come on, up we go."

Reluctantly, he takes my hand and uses me as a way back up the side of the cliff. And once he's safely back with us, I send chakra to the bottoms of my feet and walk down the side of the cliff, using that leverage to push Naruto back up to safety.

After we take a breather, Idate gets back on his feet. "Look, I didn't need your help, okay?"

"You didn't need it!? Hey listen you fathead, how about a little thanks for saving your life!?" Naruto's lid blows in an instant, and makes me want to brain myself on the cliff wall.

"You only saved me because you're bound to by duty! There's no need for me to thank you!"

Naruto growls angrily. "What did you just say?"

"Stop it, Naruto, he's absolutely right." Sasuke bursts Naruto's bubble in an instant. Then, he turns on Idate. "But look, if you don't wanna wind up dead, then I suggest you stick close to us."

"Well, where are you going anyway, what happened to Port Degarashi?" Naruto must have forgotten what I told him earlier, figures.

"What about it?" Idate looks back at us over his shoulder. "Forget the port, I'm heading north from here."

"You are? So does that mean it's faster that way?"

"That's right." Idate smirks, though in this instance, he has every right to.

So, I stretch my arms out a little, then walk right up to him. "Well, then let's go find you your tailwind. I assume that you know more about the wind patterns in this region than we do, so why don;t you fill me in on the specifics?"

He raises an eyebrow, but nods. "Alright, fine. There are some pretty strong seasonal winds that blow through here at this time of year. Back at the starting point, I noticed the clouds. I could see the wind was blowing toward us."

I nod. "The headwind that was assaulting the port. Your opponent is sailing right into it as we speak. He'll get stuck out there if he's not careful."

"Exactly." From the look in his eye, it looks like I just won a tiny bit of respect from Idate. "On top of that, there's a port to the north where the ocean current flows directly into Nagi Island."

"Giving you the perfect weather conditions to make up a lot of time, and maybe even get a significant lead on your opponent." Now it all makes sense to me, I hadn't known about the ocean current, but it makes a lot of sense. "Way to use your brain."

"Yeah…how did you know all that anyway? The rest of your team is clueless." Idate frowns at me, definitely unsure about me.

I shrug. "Wind style ninjutsu is my specialty. So, as soon as I noticed the clouds, I put most of your plan together. I just didn't know about the ocean current part of it, that's all." Then, I turn my gaze to the north. "Anyway, don't we have a boat to catch?"

Idate smirks. "Right." And he turns on heel, zooming off, and leaving us to play a little bit of catch up again. But as we head for the ocean…I have a bad feeling in my stomach that we're being followed.

* * *

As we head down to the beach, Sakura looks out across the ocean. "Hey, what's that out across the water?"

"It's the halfway point, Modoroki Shrine over on Nagi Island." He looks up once more to the sky, and to some rather ominously dark clouds starting to form. "We can probably get there within an hour from here. One sec!" He takes off towards the nearby cottage.

An old man comes out, and though his voice is muffled, he points off towards a moored boat that looks suspiciously ready for use. _So…he planned things out to this extent, huh? Smart…_

Looking back over at the boat, I smile. "Well, between the five of us, I think we should be able to crew it."

"That's the plan." Idate comes jogging back over. "We should be able to make it over there before the storm hits."

"Right." I wave the others over towards the boat. "Come on, we've got no time to waste!"

"Aye, Captain!" Naruto grins, and honestly, the double entendre makes me want to laugh and cringe at the same time. _Seriously…he needs to make better jokes._


	64. After the Rain Comes the Sun

**It's incredible how quickly I can write when I put my mind to it. Really, I'm astounded with my own past few days have been a miracle for my inspiration, and the words have just been pouring like a waterfall for this story.**

 **I hope that you all like this chapter, as it is the conclusion to the Land of Tea arc.**

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

All is calm out on the open water as Sasuke steers the boat towards Nagi Island. I'm responsible for making sure that the sails don't have an accident. But luckily, this is a sturdy and well-built ship, so I don't think we're due to have any problems with it.

What bothers me is that after that genjutsu incident, we haven't had any sign of those other ninja that the Wagarashi hired. And if that means anything, then this has got to be the calm before the storm.

That's about when Naruto and Sakura start yelling at each other, and Naruto's voice drowns her out. "Well, yeah, but I mean come on, I did make it to the final round of the Chunin Exams, didn't I?"

Surprisingly, that's what catches Idate's attention. "You didn't really make it to the final round, did you?"

"Yeah, that's right!" Naruto gets a bit combative. "And if I hadn't been interrupted in the middle of it, I could'a won the tournament and become a chunin!"

"Yeah, well whoever your proctor was must have been a real pushover." Idate scoffs quietly at Naruto's words. "Sounds like the Chunin Exam has lowered its standards some." _Lowered its standards, huh...? Sounds like someone's been on the receiving end of our proctors' sadism._

So now…I feel the need to intervene. "Ibiki, Anko, Hayate, and then Genma. Four proctors." Then, I turn on Naruto. "And Naruto, maybe you just weren't ready for chunin this time. After all, my whole team got promoted two days ago. Ibiki himself snatched Akito up as soon as it was decided, gave him an internship in the interrogation division." And from the looks of it, Sasuke and Sakura are coming to a similar conclusion as me. "Funny enough…you have the same last name as Ibiki…"

"Right, he was the proctor of the first exam!" Sakura's eyes brighten a little. "Ibiki Morino."

"What'd you say!?" Idate's eyes widen. "M-my brother? He's alive?"

"Well, of course he's alive! Why wouldn't he be?" Naruto grins widely. "He threw such a curve-ball at me the tenth question in."

"Seriously? He's really alive, then?" I don't get why Idate is so shocked by that. There must be a story there. That's the only thing that could get such a strong reaction.

But we'll have to get to story time later, because something shoots out of the sky, and my whole body tenses in an instant. "Everyone, get ready!"

"Ah, great, now what!?" Naruto looks around for the source of the tiny arrow that hit the deck.

Sasuke looks behind us. "It's an ambush." And startlingly, there's a ship behind us that somehow, no one seemed to have even noticed.

"Alright, get into a four point formation, Idate in the center, boys in front." It's my first time issuing actual orders, so I'm trying not to screw it up. "Naruto and Sasuke, hold off the arrows as long as you can." I specialize in long range combat, so I can return fire as long as I'm covered. "Sakura, watch Idate, I'm going to return fire."

Sasuke glances back at me. "You need to stay covered. You may be the captain, but you're also the medic."

"I know." My hands move before my brain does. I take in a deep breath and spit out a hail of water bullets, shooting them at the rapidly approaching ship. Fire style is, of course, a bad idea on a wooden boat. And the last thing we need is the sail ripped up, so wind style will have to wait.

While the bullets definitely slow down the assault, it doesn't stop it in the slightest. More arrows come shooting at us, this time, attached to ropes. Sasuke turns to Naruto, weapon in hand. "Start working on these ropes, I'll cover you."

"Yeah." Naruto goes to work on the ropes, while I climb up the mast and get a better vantage point for attacking.

Problem is, while Naruto is cutting the ropes, we get company. Those three ninja from the other boat start rising right out of the deck, like they materialized right out of it

 _Clones…great…it just had to be clones, didn't it?_

While Naruto is busting out the shadow clones, and Sasuke is fighting in circles, I shoot down low speed water bullets, smacking into the clones while the one real ninja hightails it off the ship. To make it worse, they switch to using water clones, making my water bullets basically useless. And unless I want to burn the whole ship up…

Then, it starts raining. But as I sniff the air, I recoil slightly. It's not rain. It's- "Oil! We have oil in the air! Fire style is off limits!" And just great, the gunk is all through my hair now.

Luckily, my warning came just in time, and Sasuke stops in his tracks. Unluckily, our opponents have a back-up plan. And all it takes is one fiery arrow to our oil-soaked boat to set the whole thing ablaze.

"Damn it!" I make my signs again, spitting water on every bit of flame I can see. But it's not working. Oil fires are notoriously hard to put out, unless you completely drench it.

Flames crawl up the mast towards me, and I curse loudly as the crackling of the fire fills my ears. I've never been afraid of fire, and I'm sure as hell not going to start now. So I leap down from the mast, right into a patch of fire, pulling Itachi and Shisui's tanto out, and slashing at the clones appearing in every direction. I'm turning into a flurry and whirlwind of blades.

And my timing was perfect, because seconds after I hit the deck, Sakura pulls the mast right out of the deck and uses it like a bat to smash through multiple clones in one swing.

The first distraction is when Sakura takes a kunai to the arm, drawing out first blood. "Damn it!" I barely notice as I accidentally roll through a patch of fire, singeing my clothes and catching the ends of my hair on fire, spurred on by the oil soaking it. "Everyone, down! Into the water!"

At my command, everyone hits the deck, being careful not to roll through patches of fire, and they all crawl towards the side of the ship as my hands flash together. "Wind Style: Waning Crescent Dance!" It's a mess of blades of wind, flying bits of fire and oil, and ruined wood flying in every direction. All of the clones are annihilated by the blades, before water starts to wash over the deck, and I make a beeline for the water.

Separated from the others, all I can do is swim for the island. They had a head start of several minutes on me, so it's no surprise that I'm so far behind them.

The surprise comes in getting close to the island, and nearly getting sucked into a whirlpool. _Yeah…not looking forward to doing that again._

* * *

Sakura's P.O.V.

"Hey, Sakura, come on! Come on, wake up!" I can hear Naruto's voice and feel someone shaking me.

So, opening my eyes just a tiny bit, I can see Sasuke out of them. _Sasuke…you know CPR, don't you? What are you waiting for? Go on. Do it!_ My heart starts thumping at the thought, even though I know I don't actually need resuscitation.

That's when the horror show starts, and instead of Sasuke's lips, I see Naruto's. Yeah…that's not going to fly. So, I scream at the top of my lungs and smack him in the head. "What, are you crazy!? You perv!"

Sasuke stands up, looking down at us. "We're wasting time we haven't got. We need to find Idate." Then, he looks around. "And our missing captain."

"You're right…but…" I look back out on the water. "Where could Ciara be? The last place I saw her was on the boat."

"She bought us time to escape, but she's probably alright." Sasuke looks out at the water, his eyes narrowing.

Then, there's a splash about thirty feet out, and a hand emerges from the water, followed by a head, and a torso, someone pulling themselves out of the water and balancing on the surface.

My eyes widen at recognizing the scorched clothes. "It that Ciara!?"

"Looks like it." Sasuke heads for the water, wading back into it as Ciara floats closer to shore. Then, he reaches her, and grabs her by the arms, hefting her over his shoulder, before making his way back to shore. "Okay, we've got her."

"Yeah…no kidding." She groans quietly, her voice just loud enough to hear.

Naruto is on his feet in an instant. "Ciara! Are you okay!?"

She nods, looking a total mess. "You can put me down…I'm not going to die, you know."

Frowning, Sasuke puts her back down on her feet, and she wobbles a little, before pushing her hair out of her face. And…that's when I notice that her hair is just…gone. There's only about two and a half inches of it left. The rest of it looks like it's been burned off. "Ciara, what happened to your hair?"

"Oil and fire don't mix very well." She shakes her head, flinging water out of her burned and soaked hair. "Or, I guess, they mix too well, and that's the whole problem." She looks around, her gaze sharpening now that she's not so dazed. "I take it that Idate isn't here, then?"

"No, we need to go find him." Sasuke's eyes wander towards the trees. "And we need to hurry."

"Then that's what we'll do." She pushes her hair out of her face again, taking off her headband and retying it to keep her bangs from sweeping over her eyes. "Priority one is find Idate, priority two is finding shelter so that I can treat the injuries we've racked up priority three is getting him back in the race. Understood?"

"Yes!" I have to admit that she's a good captain. She can keep her cool and make a plan, and while she's not concerned enough for her own safety, ours is a huge concern to her. You'd think that she'd been doing this for months, at least, not just two days.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

Well, that was fun. I feel like I got hit by a boulder or something. The weirdest part is that I don't even know why. And now, if course, it's raining. We made it to the island just in time for the storm to hit.

But there's no time to waste, so I break into a run, heading for the closest chakra signatures. "This way!"

It's not long before we catch sight of Idate, and what I presume is one of the ninja that the Wagarashi hired. And it looks like our foe is going in for the kill. Bad move.

"Idate!" Naruto sprints ahead,stopping only a few meters from our quarry. He glares angrily at our foe. "You rat! Are you in charge of those Rain Village ninja?"

"Apparently, they weren't quite up to the job…" He scrutinizes us, looking amused, at best. "In a contest of genin, it appears that the Leaf Village genin are the stronger. But genin, no matter how strong they are, are not match against me."

I take that to mean that he's a jounin. "Well, then what about their chunin captain?"

He snorts with laughter. "You're no more powerful than these genin. Newly promoted, wet behind the ears, a greenhorn."

"All true, but…" I signal to Naruto and Sasuke. "You would be wise not to underestimate any of us."

The boys move in, leaving the Rain ninja to jump high into the air to dodge their punches and kicks. Then, he swings around that umbrella of his, and a wave of water pins us all down to the ground. "About what I expected, no more of a challenge than Idate, really. I'll just give you what I gave him." He pulls out a number of sharp senbon. "No use in wasting any of my chakra." He hurls the senbon at us, hitting the four of us with two each.

The burning in my veins tells me immediately that there's poison on the needles. And then, I look to him. "Poison…"

"Yes…needles that deliver a deadly poison. No matter how strong you may be, you already have one foot in the grave." He smirks at us, thinking that the poison really is going to kill us. Well, it won't if I have anything to say about it.

"Yeah, yeah, like we haven't heard that before." Naruto tries to get to his feet, only to fall back down as the poison continues to circulate.

Then, there's noise in the distance, cheering. Aoi smiles. "Fukusuke must have reached the Modoroki last sound you'll ever hear…the sound of all your plans going up in smoke." Then, he disappears from sight, leaving the five of us with poison coursing through our system. Well, four, actually, I can already feel Suzaku purging my body of the poison.

As the boys go about pulling out the needles, and I feel Naruto yank a couple out of me, I reach into my medical bag, my rather soaked medical bag, and shuffle through the bottles in there. I locate an appropriate antidote, well, appropriately powerful, and then, Sakura touches my shoulder. "Here." She holds out a small bottle to me. "Lady Tsunade told me to give these to you. It's some kind of antidote or something."

I take the bottle and look inside. "Antidote pills…" That' perfect. "Well, better safe than sorry." I pull out a few small cups from my bag, pouring antidote into them, and then dropping two pills into each cup. "Here, you three take this. It should purge any and all poisons from your system."

The three of them look at each other, and Sakura is the first to down the mixture. The boys follow suit, and I carefully lift Idate's head up, tilting it back so that I can pour the antidote and pill down his throat without drowning him.

Sakura blinks, then looks at me. "What about you? You need to take the antidote too."

"I'll be fine without it." I put away the bottle and cups in my bag. "We need to find shelter, a cave or something."

"Agreed…" Sasuke stands up a little shakily, before taking hold of Idate. "Come on, let's go."

"Right…" I peer through the rain, looking for any sign of a cave. Then, I spot one. "There, I see one. We should be able to set up in there easy enough."

Without a word of protest, the team heads over to the cave, lugging Idate along with us. Once inside, I lean against the wall, my body feeling like it really is burning.

Sasuke sets Idate down, before proceeding to make a fire. Sakura, on the other hand, sits next to me and holds a hand to my cheek. "Ciara, you're burning up!"

"I'm fine." Though I'm sure that my temperature and the sweat covering me says otherwise.

"You're not fine, you have a fever!" She presses a fold of her wet dress to my forehead. "You're sick!"

"I'm not sick." I breathe in, then out. "I promise, I'm fine."

"Oh yeah, is that what you call it?" Sasuke raises a skeptical eyebrow. "If you're sick, we need to know. You're the captain and medical specialist. If you're out of commission, then that's information we need to have."

"I'm not sick, alright!" I raise my voice and gently knock Sakura's hand away. "The fever is because I'm burning the poison out of my body, it's why I don't need an antidote. I just need a little time to purge the rest of the poison, and I'll be good to go." I lean back and close my eyes. "Just…give me a little time…"

"Okay…" Sakura sits back down, stopping her coddling.

That gives me the chance to get my waterproof bandages out of my pack, and start wrapping them around places like Idate's legs, arm, and hand, Sakura's arm, Naruto and Sasuke's legs, basically wherever senbon and kunai have touched. And for good measure, I apply some healing chakra to speed up the cell regeneration process. At the very least, no one is bleeding anymore.

My fever is starting to die down, so I lie back against the cave wall, closing my eyes for just a few minutes. And I black right out, my energy very low now.

I wake up to someone shaking my shoulder, and I look up to see dark eyes. "Time to go?" He nods. So, I get back on my feet, shaking some residual water from my body. "Alright. I'm ready." I don't know if I got nearly enough sleep, it feel like half an hour at most. But if thats all I get, then that's all I get.

Racing out of the cave with Sasuke and Sakura, the three of us run after Naruto, carrying Idate on his back. He's got energy in spades, I'll give him that. But sometimes, I have to wonder how the hell he has that much energy. Even after all the times I've seen him go on, long past anyone else could, I still wonder…

At the bottom of a huge staircase, I bend over, breathing hard. "Damn it, Naruto…what the hell…?"

Sakura stops right next to me. "You're kidding…how does he do it?"

"Well, no one ever accused that kid of not having energy." Even Sasuke is bent over and breathing hard. Looks like Naruto's stamina is just wiping us all out.

No matter, we've just gotta push on. "Alright, let's go!" Despite my screaming muscles, I bolt up the stairs, taking them ten at a time, jumping from one side to another. I know that I seriously lack in stamina, but I suppose that I've always got my stubborn determination to push me until I finally drop. Though the dropping part is definitely not going to be very fun.

We chase Naruto and Idate all the way to the bridge that connects the two islands, only to find an ambush waiting for us. Before I can even make a hand sign, Sasuke is already springing into action, kunai in hand as Aoi swings his sword down.

Naruto looks back at us, grinning like a fool. "Hey guys, excellent timing!"

"Don't sweat it, Naruto. Just sit back and leave this clown to me." Sasuke looks…almost excited by the prospect of the fight. Though, I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, he always has seemed like a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Not as much as Naruto, but still.

Naruto smirks and shuffles aside. "This clown's tougher than you think."

"It doesn't make a difference how many of you there are, you'll never defeat me. I'm Aoi of the Rain, and I wield the Blade of the Thunder Spirit."

"Is that so?" Onyx eyes turn ruby red, and lightning crackles in Sasuke's palm. "Perfect. The Blade of the Thunder Spirit against my Chidori." He charges in without hesitation. "Alright, let's find out which one of them is stronger!"

I grit my teeth worriedly. "Damn it, Sasuke! Do you have a plan!?" But I know that I'm not going to get an answer, because no, that idiot doesn't have a plan.

Luckily, when the Chidori and the ninja blade clash, Sasuke is just tossed back by the force. As long as he lands on his feet, even crouching, that's a good sign. Unfortunately, the idiot goes right back in, dueling blade of lightning to kunai, in a battle way too fast for anyone to safely interfere in.

Aoi smirks as they engage. "I see that the stories are true. I'd always hear that the last of the great Uchiha Clan was a hopeless loser unworthy of his family name!" He increases the voltage, tossing Sasuke right back to the ground.

Sakura is on her feet in an instant. "Sasuke!"

"Run Sakura! He'll show no mercy!" Idate scrambles to his feet. "He'll kill us all! Get away while you still can!"

"No way! We'll never abandon you!" Sakura holds her ground rather admirably. "We have sworn to protect you! Trust us, Idate."

Aoi seems completely unaffected by everything going on around him. "Yes, well, back to the matter at hand. Idate and his little friend…time to start your journey to the next world."

I start weaving signs, gathering up chakra in my mouth for a massive fire jutsu. It's the only way I can think of to put a stop to all of this. I just have to be sure not to hit any allies in the process.

"Take it back." My line of sight is cut off as Sasuke rises to his feet. "Take back what you said."

Aoi frowns. "What are you talking about?

"I'm warning you…don't mess with me!" Chidori reappears in Sasuke's hand. "I'm Sasuke of the Leaf Village, the last…of the Uchiha!" He races forward, his Chidori tearing up the ground beneath him. And he drives the strike of lightning against the ninja blade, before being swept into the air by its power, and then tossed over onto the unstable bridge.

Sakura throws kunai at Aoi, forcing him to moe, as she races towards Sasuke. It also gives me the perfect opportunity to unleash fiery doom upon Aoi, bathing the entire area in a river of fire. Luckily, the trees and ground are still damp from the rain, and nothing too major catches fire. Still, it's good to hear Aoi scream a little. It means it worked, at least for a moment.

Then, Aoi, clothes smoking, and hair disheveled, emerges from the fire. "It's a long way to the bottom of the sea." He raises his sword, ready to plunge Sasuke and Sakura into the ocean a few hundred feet below.

"No, leave them alone!" Idate races in to fight, trying to stop Aoi from cutting through the ropes holding up the bridge.

"Idate!" Naruto panics as he sees Idate electrocuted and thrown , his eyes find Sakura as the ropes are cut, and she and Sasuke go over the edge. "Sakura!

"Can you handle things here!?" I look to Naruto with a question in my eyes. If I don't go, Sakura and Sasuke are definitely going to die. If I do go, Idate will be in danger.

Naruto nods, terror in his eyes. "Save them!"

If he thinks he can do it, I will put all of my faith in Naruto. And with no more hesitation, I race towards the edge of the cliff, diving over the side, and streamlining myself as I take the plunge towards the ocean.

I spot the pink hair getting close to the canyon wall. "Sakura! Grab onto the wall for as long as you can!" I don't know how much time that will buy her, but it'll have to be enough.

As she goes ahead and grabs onto the rocks, wings burst from my back, and I pick up speed, zooming towards them as Sakura holds onto Sasuke, dragging her heels down the cliff in an attempt to slow their descent.

With each second, I get closer and closer to them, and then, about fifty feet from the bottom, I grab hold of two pale arms, one much paler than the other. At this, dark eyes open, and jade eyes lock onto me. We're going down too fast for me to slow us and level out properly, so I've only got one option. "Hold onto me and don't let go!" I pull them into my arms, holding onto them tightly as I turn us around, leaving me below them, and my wings wrapping around the three of us.

My wings just barely have the chance to harden before the three of us slam into the ground. Though, the fact that I scream out in pain is probably a good thing, because it means that I'm definitely still alive.

It takes a few moments before my wings start to open, all of the bones mercifully intact. But, as they disappear, it becomes clear that not everything is in working order. While I can easily get Sakura off of my right arm, My left arm won't move properly, leaving a half conscious Sasuke lying on it. "Damn it…"

Sakura gets on her knees, and slowly rolls Sasuke off of me. "Ah! Ciara…your arm…"

I take a look at it, and honestly, it's not as bad as I thought. "Damn…dislocated it." It's popped out at the shoulder and twisted at an awkward angle. I won't be able to get to healing anyone, myself or others, until my arm is put back in place. "Sakura…I need you to pull on my arm, then pop it back into the socket. Preferably without tearing any of the tendons or ligaments." I sit up gingerly, moving my fingers, then my wrist, then my elbow, before feeling a sharp jolt of pain. "And I need my arm fixed quickly, I think Sasuke's ribs are cracked." And of course, my back hurts from landing on my medical kit. Thankfully, I doubt anything is broken in there.

"Uh…how do I reset your arm?" She tugs on it gingerly, sending another jolt of pain through it.

I take a deep breath, before undoing my headband and stuffing the cloth part in my mouth. "Pull it hard, and pop it in!" My words are a bit muffled, but I bite down as I hold out my arm, hoping that she understood enough.

Thankfully, it seems she did, and she hesitates a moment, before screwing up her courage and yanking on my arm, causing me to let out a muffled scream, before popping it right back into the joint. It was far from the most professional job, but it had to do in this case. And already, I can feel it healing.

A few moments later, I remove my headband from my mouth and move my arm around slowly It hurts, but not so much that I can't tend to Sasuke. Reaching into my pack, I pull out waterproof bandages, before slowly working off Sasuke's shirt. "Sakura, I'll need you to assist me. My arm is still damaged, and I need to make sure that the bindings are tight enough."

"Right." She starts unraveling the bandages, helping me to carefully wrap them around Sasuke's torso, interrupted only briefly by a screaming Aoi plunging into the water right next to us. Sakura's face goes from confusion to elation at the sight. "Naruto…he must have won!"

"Yeah, good, now come on, we need to finish treating Sasuke." I wrap the bandages around his chest tightly, but not so tight as to bruise or constrict air. All the while, I run chakra into my hands, hopefully healing the bones enough for him to be able to move properly.

He looks up at us blearily. "What…?"

"Cracked ribs." I make sure to hold him down, just in case. "Don't move, I need to finish binding your wounds." Sakura watches carefully, loosening the bindings a little before allowing me to continue.

His eyes travel down from my face to my shoulder. "Your arm…"

"Back in place, thanks to Sakura. It hurt, but I'll recover quickly." I tie off the bandages, inspecting them one more time before sliding his shirt back on. "Done…"

Then, I look up to see Naruto. "Hey!"

"Hey!" He waves down at us.

Sakura raises her voice. "Hey Naruto! Idate! We're all fine down here!"

"Hold on! We'll have you out of there in no time!" Naruto looks like he's ready to rappel down the cliff to come get us.

So, I raise my voice to be heard loud and clear. "Naruto! You are to escort Idate to Todoroki Shrine immediately! We'll be fine, I'll get these two out of here! You have a job to do, now go do it!"

Naruto stops waving, then gives me what I think is a thumbs up. "Alright! You got it! We'll see you at the finish line!" Then, he and Idate get on the last rope of the bridge, before cutting it and swinging to the other side, climbing up, and disappearing from sight.

It takes me about a half hour to recover enough to sprout wings again and fly us up out of the canyon. And once we're back up, the three of us limp our way to the finish line. And we're just in time for the closing ceremonies.

As Idate takes the podium, an announcer takes the scene. "The winner: Idate Morino, representing the Wasabi family!"

Of course…I should have known that it was too soon for everything to be going right, because a creepy looking guy approaches the podium, flanked by two henchmen. "Hold on, that's enough." He looks way to smug to be a good guy. "It seems this kid rode on the back of a hired ninja for part of the way. That's a violation."

Naruto starts growling, justifiably so. "What'd you say!?"

"I have proof. Just take a look at this photograph." And when he turns the paper in his hand around, there's a picture of Idate riding on Naruto's back.

Another creepy looking old man approaches the podium. "They have to make it on their own strength. Those are the rules of this race. The boy must be disqualified. Which means that Fukusuke Hikyakuya of the Wagarashi family is the winner." Something stinks here…something really stinks.

And I'm half wondering if we could get away with an assassination while on this trip.

Boss Jirocho looks more than a little stunned. "What? It can't be…"

"W-wait a minute, that was-" Idate is trying to come up with something, anything to preserve his win for the sake of the Wasabi.

"I'll hear none of your excuses. Jirocho, you gave your word. I want the Wasabi family to disband immediately." The way he smiles about that definitely tells me that this official is dirty. Very dirty.

My respect for the feudal lord, however, goes up when he interrupts. "Just a moment." He strike a rather imposing figure, despite his short stature. "There is no such rule. Stop talking nonsense."

"B-but my lord…" The magistrate looks more than a little uncomfortable now.

"But what? Are you suggesting I let the Wagarashi win simply because you wish it?" I grin at the feudal lord's words. _Looks like…he knows that the magistrate isn't playing by the rules…_ "Perhaps the reason you want to win so badly is because otherwise it would mean an end to all the bribes you've been accepting. Look here." And the lord brings out a photograph of his own, damning evidence that the magistrate is in cahoots with the Wagarashi. "You ignoramus. You'll give up your position and don a monk's robe. And you, Kyoroku, I have heard a great deal about the evil deeds you have committed. Your crimes against the people of Port Degarashi are unforgivable. From this day forth, the Wagarashi family is no more. Is that clear?" And upon receiving compliance, the lord laughs. "An auspicious day. Now, let us consider this matter ended!"

The cheering from the crowd is deafening, and I have to say that it's a great way to end a mission that turned out to be a lot harder that we expected. Well, harder than the others expected. Personally, I was expecting this to be a repeat of the Land of Waves, and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed in that regard.

* * *

The one part about being picked up by Ibiki at the port that I don't like is that we have to get Sasuke on board using a stretcher. He's just in no condition to be moving around any more than necessary.

I sit down inside the boat while Naruto and Sakura say goodbye for all of us. Sighing, I put my head on my knees and finally relax a little.

"You know, for your first assignment as captain of a squad, I must say that you exceeded my expectations." I snap my head up to see Ibiki standing there. "Your mission was a success, and your team came out with minimal injuries, when considering that you were face to face with a rogue ninja. Be proud of yourself, you conducted yourself well as a chunin of the Hidden Leaf."

"Really?" I breath a sigh of relief when he nods. "Thank you…I did my best. I just wanted to make sure we succeeded…and that no one died. And even if you said that I did terribly…at least I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish."

"Hmph, so you have." Ibiki hands me a scroll. "A letter from the Fifth Hokage for you."

"A letter?" I open it and scan the contents, my eyes widening. "Lee accepted the surgery. They're waiting for me to come back so they can do it!?" It says that she'll wait until I've had a good night's sleep before doing it, and that it'll take place the day after I return to the village, starting in the afternoon. "I see, thank you for delivering this to me."

Ibiki nods, before heading off to the helm to sail us home. Home…where I have a very important task waiting for me.


	65. Healing and Parting

**Okay, this is the surgery chapter, which means that while it's a part of canon, it's also a divergence and expansion on it. I hope that all of you enjoy it. And by the way, I'm quite familiar with human anatomy, while maybe not all of you are quite as familiar, so I'm leaving out a lot of the anatomical and medical jargon. There will, however, be a few terms that you might not know, but I'll be putting them in situ, so you'll get the idea.**

 **Also, I hope that you all like the dream at the end. I worked rather hard on it.**

 **This chapter is not as long as I would like it to be, but it's more of a transition chapter, so I hope you'll forgive me for it. It's also my first chapter of the day as I transition into the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.**

* * *

Today is the day. The big day. I slip out of bed, late, almost at noon, and then into the shower. I spend almost twenty minutes in there, almost four times as much time as I usually do. But considering what I'm doing today…I think I deserve a chance to calm down and relax. And, out of habit, while shampooing and conditioning my hair, I apply chakra to the roots.

It's weird to go to shampoo it, and just feel so much of it gone, but thankfully, I'm not one to freak out over that kind of stuff. No…what I find more interesting is what didn't burn off. I chuckle to myself as it becomes apparent that these chakra treatments of mine have had the accidental effect of making my hair fireproof. Though, considering that I've been running my own chakra through it, which includes my powerful fire nature, I suppose that it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise. Well, I can definitely work with that.

After finally removing myself from the shower, I make sure to eat three times as much as I usually would for lunch, stuffing myself full. Between my fast metabolism, and the surgery this afternoon, I'm going to need as much energy as my lunch will afford me.

I do some last-minute studying, just to refresh my memory on what I've been studying for the better part of a month. Well before our latest crazy mission down south in the Land of Tea. After all, I have more responsibilities than just what's being given to me as a chunin. I'm first and foremost a medic.

So, I spend the next couple of hours writing up the mission report, something that I've never done, but I try to be as thorough as possible. In it, I include every problem we had, as well as every order I gave, and every instance in which the others took their own initiative instead of just sitting around to wait for an order. Which, in my eyes, is a good thing. Their instinct…our instinct, is to protect each other. And that's not a bad thing.

As soon as I put the finishing touches on the mission report, I take out a box of tiny ribbons. And from there, I proceed to braid little sections of my hair back, to keep everything but my bangs from hanging in my face. Once the entire front half behind my bangs is braided back, using about twenty tiny ribbons, the rest of it waving and curling below that, I deem it finished and put away the box.

I pick up my mission report and look it over one more time before heading to the hospital. I figure that since Tsunade is going to be there for the surgery, I can just hand it to her before or after. No need to waste any time, especially since I'll probably be exhausted after this afternoon. In fact, considering that it could run late into the night, I'd say that my expedience is probably a very good thing, because I'll be way too tired afterward to write up a good report.

Taking a deep breath, I open up my window and hop outside, my eyes trained on the hospital, thankfully fairly close by. Well, here we go… It's nerve-wracking, knowing that Lee's life is going to be in my hands. But I have to do this, for the sake of Lee's pride and ambitions, for the sake of his future.

Which is why, only five minutes later, I walk into the hospital, and towards the surgery wing, trading out normal clothes for sterile scrubs. _I'm ready. I can do this._

When I reach the operating theatre, I can see Tsunade and Shizune there, along with Lee and his team. Pulling together my determination, I approach them and smile. "Ciara Shiryugu, reporting for duty." I hold up the pile of papers in my hand. "I also have a mission report to hand in."

Tsunade looks up to see me, raising an eyebrow slightly, but accepting the papers. She flips through them, nodding, then closes them and hands them to Shizune. "Very good, I'm glad to see that the mission went as well as it did. Are you ready for the surgery?"

"I am." I walk up to them, smile at Lee's team, before putting my hand on Lee's shoulder. "Don't worry about a thing, I'm going to do my best today, you just watch! This is going to work, I know it."

Lee's already determined face brightens even more, and he smiles at me, nodding. "Yes!"

"Well, then, let's go." Tsunade turns towards the surgical theatre, so I follow along, walking beside Lee, who has probably gone and refused the standard wheelchair for preparing for such an operation. It only makes sense, considering how prideful and stubborn he can be.

The doors close behind us, cutting off the view of Lee's team, and only leaving the surgical team and the patient inside. Shizune ushers Lee towards the table, helping him to undress, before laying him on his stomach on the specially designed operation table.

First things first is to put Lee under, and Shizune goes about settling him down and knocking him out. Once he's under, all talking except for Tsunade's voice ceases, and only absolute obedience and precision remains.

A chair is set up by Lee's head for me, and I sit myself down, looking to Tsunade, who nods. "Ciara, activate the jutsu. You'll need to maintain it until we're done, but don't overdo it and make his cells replicate when it's unneeded."

"Got it!" I make a number of hand signs, before pressing my hands to the table on either side of Lee's head. My chakra pours out and surrounds him, creating something of a glowing dome within which Tsunade and her other assistants can work.

From there, they proceed to cut Lee open and slowly, very slowly start to work on removing the bone shards embedded up and down his spine, somehow bypassing the vertebrae and turning his central nervous system into something of a hedgehog. Well, it doesn't look like it, but still, the idea stands. I watch with interest, but remain focused on my task, so I take in only a few of the more intricate details. My attention is focused, instead, on wherever they happen to be working, just in case they need a sudden burst of cell replication. And at the same time, my mind is split between focusing on that, as well as every single cell in his body. It's…headache-inducing, to put it mildly.

Thankfully, I have help. Suzaku brushes along the edges of my mind, sharpening my focus and alleviating any discomfort I feel. Every second feels like an eternity, though. And it's impossible to believe that I'll be able to keep up this level of intense focus for the hours that it will take to complete the surgery.

Still, I'll do it, I'll do it for Lee, to push his dreams of being a shinobi forward. Would I do this for any of my other peers? Yes, I would. There's no hesitation in that mental answer.

"Ciara, I need cell replication between the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae." Tsunade's voice calls my attention, and my eyes shift to a place low in Lee's spine where large fragments of bone have been extracted. And considering what it looks like now, I'm surprised that he was able to walk at all. Still, I do as asked and press in on the activation of the calls in that region, replicating and repairing them as requested. We're starting with the lumbar and thoracic regions, before proceeding to the nerve system protected by the cervical vertebrae. That's where it will get dangerous, because that's the part closest to the brain.

Whew…just six more hours of this to go. Forget Lee, at this rate, I might be the one who doesn't survive it.

A warmth envelops me from the inside out that makes me smile. _Do not worry, chick, I am here with you. You will not falter as long as the two of us work together. And at his words, my focus sharpens, and the strain lessens. Now come, use my chakra as well. It will do you no good to run out of your own chakra._

Right… I let his chakra flow into my limbs, making the chakra dome that was once white glow with a soft golden light. Its the result of melding two entirely different chakra together. And to be honest, it's rather pretty.

* * *

By the time the operation ends, it's already dark outside. And honestly, I've never felt so exhausted in my life. I thought that extended combat was exhausting, but I think that the mental exhaustion from six long hours of intense concentration is worse. Restoring someone's central nervous system in order to restore ease of movement and remove sources of disability and pain is not nearly as easy as you'd think.

Thankfully, the brunt of the exhaustion doesn't touch me until I let my chakra dissipate and I stumble out of the operating room half asleep.

Waiting outside the room is Lee's sensei, along with his two teammates. And as soon as they see me, the first person to leave the room in hours, they get to their feet, looking to me for news. So, I yawn loudly and lean heavily against the wall. "That…was the most exhausting thing I've ever done…" Then, I look at them and smile. "Go easy on him for a while. The recovery is going to be rough."

All of them are silent for a moment as they let my words sink in. And then, Gai gets loud in a heartbeat, cheering and whooping at a time of the night that cheering and whooping should be illegal.

Tenten approaches me, looking concerned. "Hey, you don't look so good. Do you need someone to take you home?"

I shake my head. "No, I can make it on my own." Though that might be my stubbornness talking more than anything else. "Thanks, though. But you should focus on Lee. He's going to need you guys."

"Right…" She hesitates, then wraps me in a hug. "Thanks for helping our teammate…you didn't have to, but…"

"I would have done it for any one of you." And that's the truth. "The odds weren't great to begin with, but…I'd like to think that I increased his chances pretty good. I'd like to think…that I really helped to save his life."

Gai smiles at me, tears dripping from his eyes. "You did. And I'm very grateful."

That makes me smile. Then, my eyes start to droop. "Anyway, I'm going home. I've never had to hold a jutsu and steady output of chakra for six hours before…and I just don't have that kind of stamina."

"Fair enough." Neji looks me over carefully, his Byakugan active. "You should take a food pill too, your chakra levels are quite low."

"Good idea…" I can take one of those before I go to bed. That way, I'll be ready for anything in the morning. Or I could just take one in the morning with breakfast. That would probably be best.

With that in mind, I trudge out of the hospital and off towards my house. Good thing I know these streets like th back of my hand. Only, it's going to take a lot longer to get home without being able to jump across rooftops. But that's a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make, considering how well the surgery went.

The streets are entirely deserted, which is normal considering that it's like…eleven in the evening. Actually, it might be even later, I think the surgery went on longer than six hours, but six is where I just lost count. Maybe I should have checked one of the clocks at the hospital before I left.

Yawning,I make it about halfway home before my vision starts to blur. _Damn it…not now…_ I thought I could go a little longer than this.

"Ciara? What are you doing out so late?" I blink, my vision clearing as I turn around to see Sasuke standing behind me.

I rub my eyes, then smile. "Oh. Hey Sasuke…I was just-" I stifle a drawn out yawn. "-just heading home after assisting with Lee's surgery." My vision starts to blue again, this time with sleepy tears. "What about you…?"

"…Out for a walk." His voice is soft…maybe he doesn't want to wake anyone up. That's nice…

My head is fuzzy, to put it mildly. "Mmm…don't stay out too late…you'll probably get a new mission in the morning." Of course, he was just discharged from the hospital, but he looks fine now. "Come on, let's-" I wobble slightly, holding my arms out to steady myself. "Whoa. Okay…maybe I should have taken Tenten up on her offer to take me home." I shake my head, trying to clear it up. But it feels like Suzaku is as tired as I am, though I can hardly blame him.

Unexpectedly, arms wrap around my shoulders and knees, lifting me clear off the ground. And as I move to get down, Sasuke's voice echoes in my ear. "Stay still."

It's Sasuke, so…I do as he says and stay still as he starts walking…in what smells like the direction of my house. Yeah, the neighborhood I live in has a rather distinct smell. Lots of food smells, the smell of laundry twenty-four seven, and of fresh wood, since they've been putting up new buildings in the area recently.

Sasuke's voice drops to a whisper. "Is your window open?"

I nod. "Jumped out of it to go to the hospital…"

"Okay." Then, he makes a huge jump, landing in a way that has his knees brushing against my back. Then, with some careful maneuvering, I feel myself being nestled into familiar, soft, warm blankets that smell like home. "Goodbye…" Then, something even warmer brushes against my forehead, and I heard the window slide shut.

I open my eyes and look blearily out the window, but there's nothing, and no one there. I blink sleepily at the window, before reaching out to lock it, then to my medical kit which sits next to my bed. I pop a single food pill into my mouth, before kicking off my shoes and cuddling into my blankets, falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

 _"Hey Uncle Chichi!" I wave across the lawn at the head of long dark hair._

 _Eyes just as dark lock on me, accompanied by a warm smile. "Hello Ciara. You look very happy today."_

 _"Of course I'm happy!" I race towards him, leaping into his outstretched arms. "I like it when you visit me!"_

 _"Oh, you do, do you?" He chuckles softly into my hair, holding me tightly in his arms and standing up straight, carrying me like he always does. "Well, I try to make time to come see you, but you know that I have a lot of missions, right?"_

 _I pout slightly. "Yeah…I know…you and Uncle Shishi are always out on missions."The, I reach out and grab his cheeks. "So will you play with me today?"_

 _He smiles. I love seeing his smile. "Just for a little while. I have another mission later, but I'll come back to see you when I can."_

 _It makes me feel sad that he won't be staying long, but I smile anyway. "Okay Chichi. But stay here until you leave, okay?"_

 _"Okay…" He strokes my hair softly, that familiar smile…so gentle and warm. He kisses my forehead, as he always does, and it makes me giggle._

 _Then, everything around me shifts. I'm no longer four years old. I'm twelve, and Itachi is no longer ten, he's eighteen. His crimson red Sharingan eyes are turned on me, full of surprise, but no malice._

 _"Itachi!" I reach out for him, trying to get to him. Trying to tear off that terrifying cloak and find the real him underneath it all._

 _"Ciara…run." He appears right behind me, and I turn around to see hi towering over me. "The Akatsuki are coming. They come for both of you." His voice becomes disembodied, little by little. "Coming…for both of you."_

 _"No!" Tears drip down my face as Itachi begins to disappear again. "No! Come back! Itachi!" I reach out, trying to grab hold of something solid, anything as everything goes dark. "No! I don't believe you! There's no way you'd try to hurt me! What's going on!? Tell me!" My frantic screams echo, then die. They exist only in a place where no one can hear me cry._

 _Tears continue to drip down my face as everything goes black, leaving me completely and utterly alone. "Itachi…come back…"_

 _Everything around me is cold and dark…there's just nothing left. "Come back…don't leave me alone again…" But he has. Itachi has gone and left me alone again. For one reason or another…he's always leaving me._

 _Am I not good enough? Not strong enough? Does he not love me anymore? But then…why would he warn me? Is he trying to protect me?_

* * *

Tears drip down my face as I turn over and pull the covers over my head. "Itachi…"


	66. In Hot Pursuit

**So…there's one part of this arc that I never really got. Lee just had surgery done to take bone fragments out of his SPINAL CORD. There's no way, even with chakra healing him, that he should even be out of bed and moving, let alone chasing down a pursuit team and fighting an epic battle to the death. So…no, Lee can stay in bed. He deserves a vacation.**

 **This is a long chapter, but it takes a good chunk of the arc into account. At least, the part that's actually going to get covered. I should be able to cover the rest of it in about three long chapters, and then a couple extra chapters for the extra stuff. Oh boy, this is going to be a long night.**

 **I do hope you guys like the compromises, though, and the interactions, as well as the logic and detail that I'm putting into this. Because it's not easy trying to not screw up canon too badly, while still throwing in little hints and details for later. Now, without further ado, let's get back to our irregularly scheduled chase scenes.**

* * *

I wake up, wishing that I could sleep longer. But…a foreboding feeling in my stomach wakes me after… I look at the clock. Only seven hours of sleep. Definitely not enough after an evening like the one I had.

 _Wait…evening?_

I spring out of bed, looking out my window and noting that it's locked. _Was…it all a dream?_

Whatever the case, I shower and change, since I feel icky after being stuck in an operation room for so long. Once I'm done showering, the ribbons go back in my hair, and I put on dark shorts, my sandals, and a red and blue long-sleeved shirt with no fabric covering my upper back. After all, shirts with full backs to them are off limits for me. That's precisely why I don't go for my chunin flak jacket. It covers an area that I can't have covered.

But, since I've got time, I head over to Tsunade's office, intent on asking her how it went after the surgery ended, I left pretty quickly since I was dead on my feet at the time.

Her grim face upon opening the door is not what I expected to see. "Oh no, were there complications with the surgery?"

She shakes her head. "No, but I have just received word that Sasuke Uchiha has left the village and is heading fr Orochimaru in the Hidden Sound Village."

I stand there in shock for longer than I'd care to admit, before growing deadly serious. "Where is the mission leader for his retrieval?" On the inside, I'm in a complete panic. _Is that why he was out so late last night? I thought that was a dream!_

She looks out the window towards the village gates. "Shikamaru is the leader of the mission, and I've tasked him with gathering up any skilled genin he feels can handle the mission. He'll be leaving within ten minutes."

A task force like that means that Orochimaru likely has his goons involved. Ten minutes isn't much, but I can manage that. "Then I will go as well, they will need another fighter, just in case. I can work well with the other genin, plus I can strategize with Shikamaru. They'll also need a medical officer, just in case. I know I'm a chunin, and you said that he was recruiting genin, but I have to go."

She glares at me, her fingers pressed together as she considers me. But I hold my ground, not backing down. "You're going to go whether I say you ca or not, aren't you?"

I smirk at the accusation. "In my place, wouldn't you?"

She sighs and waves her hand. "Then go, you have eight minutes."

"That's plenty." I race out of her office, making it home in record time. I clip on my medical pack, newly resupplied as of yesterday's trip to the hospital, and I attach Itachi and Shisui's tanto to my belts as well. Last to go on is my headband, which holds my bangs out of my eyes. "Alright, time to go."

The speed with which I make it to the gate is incredible, but it looks like I make it just in time to catch them before they leave. And it looks like Sakura and Lee are there to see them off. "Wait!"

They all look up at me, and Shikamaru frowns. "What are you doing here?"

I pat my medical kit and stare them all down. "I've already got permission from the top. I'm joining your team as your medical officer."

Shikamaru's eyes widen. "Seriously?"

I nod. "Yes, now what formation have you already decided on?"

The other chunin blinks, before setting out a scroll in front of me with a diagram on it. "Kiba and Akamaru head of our single file formation, I'm second for assessment and handing out orders, Naruto is in the middle for multi-directional assistance, Chouji is fourth as a slower rear-guard striker, and Neji at the back as read guard with his Byakugan."

"I see…" I take a few seconds to study the formation, then point to a spot on the diagram. "I take a spot between Naruto and Chouji, then. That way, I'll have protection on all sides, just in case, I'll be close enough to you to see your signals and relay them back, and if we get into a fight, I'll be closest to Naruto, who I can fight well with, as well as there being a good chance that he'll be the first one injured."

Shikamaru nods at my suggestions. "Naruto, Chouji, it's up to you two to keep an eye on Ciara, then. I know she's got a lot of power of her own, but keeping the medical ninja alive is the key to keeping all of us on our feet." Then, he turns back to me. "In that position, you're also in a good place to launch long-range attacks from, while still being defended. I know that you use wind and fire jutsu."

"Water as well." I make sure to correct him. "I've been working on learning water style lately. I haven't nearly mastered it yet, but it's something I have in my arsenal. Along with…" I open up my medical pack for him to inspect. "Antibiotics, antiseptics, antidotes to poison, food pills, energy drinks, as well as a standard set of kunai and shuriken, and two ANBU issue tanto."

"ANBU issue…" Shikamaru raises an eyebrow. "How'd you get those?"

"From a couple of uncles of mine who are…no longer with us." That's the most tactful way to put it, I guess. "Anyway, apart from my medical ninjutsu, that's what I can contribute to the mission. I've also got pretty sharp eyes. Not as good as Neji's but…I've got good intuition as well, and some rudimentary sensor abilties. I assume that you also know how well I can think on my feet."

He nods. "Yeah, I saw that during the exams. Your skill set contributes what I'd expect to see in two, maybe even three ninjas. It's good to have you on board." He rises to his feet and dusts himself off. "Well, it looks like we have a plan, unless someone else pops out of the woodwork in the next sixty seconds to offer help."

"I think this is it…" _Time to go after that wayward…cousin of mine…well, like ten times removed, but still._ "They have, at most, an eight and a half hour head start on us. We'll have to move fast to make up that much time."

Shikamaru frowns. "How do you know that the time frame can't be more?"

I scratch the back of my head sheepishly, ruffling my braids. "Uh…well, that's because after the surgery I helped with last night, I ran into Sasuke on my way home. I thought it was a dream for a bit, but the last thing I remember before waking up was him taking me home, getting into my house through my window, and tucking me into bed. I mean, I was dead tired, so I passed out within minutes of him leaving."

Everyone stares at me, and Sakura in particular looks rather dejected. Then, Naruto pipes up. "Well, in that case, we've got no time to lose."

"Right." I look out at the path that cuts through the forest ahead of us. "Time to go find Sasuke and bring him home." I secure my medical bag, not wanting to end up like Naruto during the mission in the Land of Tea, when he hung upside down and all his ninja tools fell out of his pouch.

Shikamaru nods. "Well, this little interruption cost us some time, but let's get moving. They've got a big head start on us, and we have a lot of time to make up."

"Right." Our line starts to shape up a little as we move out, leaving Sakura and Lee behind at the gate.

It doesn't take long for the village to be completely out of sight as we race through the trees. And I feel quite comfortable placed in the line between Naruto and Chouji. From where I am, I can see Kiba and Akamaru up ahead, and if I look over my shoulder, I can keep an eye out for Neji. And while the pace is not a particularly fun one, I have no trouble keeping up with the boys. It's going to get hard to see a long chase through, though. I just don't have the kind of stamina needed if this goes on for more than a day and a half. Less, if we have to speed up. And it will be impossible if we have to fight at every turn.

Of course, as soon as I hear Shikamaru mention blood, I stretch out my senses, looking for who it could be. And while I recognize the nearby chakra signatures as Leaf shinobi, only one of them sticks out.

"Okay, here's what happened!" Kiba's voice rings out from up ahead. "Two scents converged with the scents of Sasuke and four others. The two have stayed behind, while Sasuke's group has moved on. So…what now?"

"Just as I thought…Sasuke's got an escort." Shikamaru sighs loudly at that.

Naruto, on the other hand, has a one-track mind. "Well, there's no question, we go after Sasuke!

Kiba bristles at Naruto trying to give orders. "Who died and made you boss? Last I checked, Shikamaru was in charge of running this show. It's up to him to decide."

Shikamaru sighs again. "Since Akamaru smelled blood, my guess is that there was a battle between Sasuke's group and the two newcomers. If we go to the spot where they fought, we might be able to gather some useful information, and Ciara would be able to treat their wounds. Course, we can't just rush in, it might be a trap."

"No, it's not!" It's time for me to speak up. "I recognize the chakra signatures as ours…but the one that sticks out to me is Shizune's. She's an experienced medical ninja, so she's more than capable of tending to her team by herself. As it is, we haven't lost as much time as I thought we had, so this is the perfect opportunity to gain the ground we lost. It also sounds like the battle as fast and one-sided, so we probably would only get a description of how our ninja got beaten, and not much else. We're on a time limit, and we need to keep that in mind."

"That's also true." Shikamaru concedes my point.

"So? What's it gonna be, Shikamaru!?" Naruto huffs impatiently and worriedly.

Shikamaru takes a moment to make the decision. "We follow Sasuke."

Naruto breathes a sigh of relief, and I nod. "In that case, we should proceed by assuming a few things. One, that the people we're pursuing are likely older, stronger, and more experienced than we are. Two, that they are quite willing to kill anyone who gets in their way, and will therefore fight ruthlessly. And three, that even with the six of us, we are vastly overpowered and outmatched, which means that we need to be sneaky and careful, and take every advantage that we can get. Let's just assume that they can do anything and everything under the sun, and that way, we can be disappointed when it turns out that they can't, rather than surprised in all the wrong ways."

Shikamaru smirks and looks back at me. "Well, you've really thought this out, haven't you?"

"Of course I have. My head isn't just for decoration, you know." Not that I would ever actually use my head as any kind of decoration.

"Well, it seems that my apprehension was unfounded." I glance back over my shoulder at Neji, who finally broke his silence. "I was concerned that by having two chunin on the team, that the two of you would fight for control of it. But…"

"But it turns out that the two of us are actually good at putting our heads together?" I laugh back at him. "I didn't just make chunin because of my strength, you know."

Shikamaru looks back at us. "That's all well and good, but we do have a problem." I snap my attention back to him, wondering which of our many problems he wants to address. "These guys have already been in one fight, so they'll be on their guard. Unless they're complete idiots, they'll have to know there's gonna be more ninja on their trail. There's a good chance we'll hit some booby traps, or even an ambush up ahead. So, from this point on, we proceed with caution. I want everybody, not just Akamaru, to put your senses on full alert. If you catch a trace of anything suspicious, sound the alarm. We wanna find these guys before they find us."

"Hah, got it!" Naruto grins. "And when we do find em, I'm gonna clobber em with this brand new jutsu of mine!"

I roll my eyes behind him. "You know, you really shouldn't whip it out at every opportunity. You should keep at least some tricks a secret. You've been using it for less than a month!"

"Yeah, yeah, so what!?" Naruto looks back at me. "I don't see you keeping your new tricks a secret!"

"Well, I'm working on a new one that only my teammates know about…" Though, when we get back, maybe I should ask Kakashi for some pointers on lightning style as well.

Then, Kiba goes on high alert. "The enemy's scent is here, all around us!"

"Everyone stop!" Shikamaru signals for the stop, so all six of us land on the closest branch in a straight line. "Look up on that tree…see that?" He points up towards the trunk of a nearby tree. There's an explosive tag on it.

"A paper bomb…" Neji examines it closely. "I'm sure there's five more of them. A perimeter barrier…that's what it is."

Chouji frowns. "A perimeter barrier?"

"It's a type of trap ninjutsu. There's a delay after the perimeter is breached, giving the victim just enough time to get to the center of the area fr the full effect." He glares up at the tag. "Its a tricky ninjutsu…I learned about it in one of the books Dad used to make me read."

Kiba growls. "Now we gotta waste time going around it. Great…"

 _…Do we?_ I reach deep inside myself, looking for a source of wisdom. _Do you happen to know how to disable a barrier ninjutsu like this one?_

It takes a few seconds to hear him speak, but when he does, I sigh in relief. _Yes child. Allow me to use your hands, and I will show you how to do it._ Smiling, I jump forwards toward the tree, paying close attention to the signs that my feathered partner weaves with my hands.

Shikamaru cries out in alarm. "What are you doing!?"

I grab the explosive tag, ripping it from the tree and crushing it in my fist, before breathing on it and sending it up in smoke. "Cracking the barrier wide open."

All of them stare at me, then into the forest, then back at me. Then, Neji narrows his eyes. "And how is it that you know how to do that?"

"Well…" I shoot Naruto a significant look. "Let's just say that I asked for a little help." Then, I look on ahead through the now ruined barrier. "Come on, the way should be fairly clear now."

"Right…" Shikamaru gives the signal to move again, so we get back into our line and move through the barrier, no explosions to be seen.

We make it through the barrier area without incident, and I let us out on the other side. Then, we hit the slew of traps nestled in the trees and stretched across the ground. And it's so dense that it forces us to very carefully tiptoe over the traps of the ground route.

"Man…this whole forest is crawling with booby traps." Kiba steps carefully,since, as the one in front of the line, he's the one picking out all of the traps. So we just step where he steps.

"Yeah, but luckily, they're easy to spot. These guys are moving fast and getting sloppy."

Kiba looks around, sniffing at the air. "Naruto, do me a favor and watch where you're going. I don't want you blowing us all up. There's tripwires everywhere."

Naruto scoffs. "Tell me something I don't know."

But, as he takes another step, my vision flickers into an explosion of color, and my eyes catch sight of a serious problem. "Naruto! Don't put your foot down!" I shoot Shikamaru a serious look, and in an instant, he weaves the signs for his shadow possession, and grabs hold of Chouji's scarf, holding both himself and Naruto back from stepping on a nearly invisible tripwire.

Shikamaru sighs. "Just in time…"

I take the opportunity to grab hold of Naruto and pull him away from the painted tripwire. "Okay, maybe they're not as sloppy as we thought. Clearly, that was a good trap."

Kiba's voice is the next to echo through the forest. "Didn't I tell you to watch your step, you moron!?"

I shake my head and bend down towards the painted green wire, whose artificial pigments stick out in my vision. "Here we are…" I touch the wire carefully, examining it.

"I see…" Shikamaru crouches down next to me. "One wire catches the light and is easy to see. The other is camouflaged. While you're busy avoiding the first, you trip the second."

"They've created a trap within a trap…they're clever, whoever they are." Neji examines the trap for himself, looking unimpressed, despite his words. Then, he glances at me. "Your eyes…is that some kind of jutsu you're using?"

I bit my lip and nod. "Something like that. I can see everything in thermal vision, or I can see in a bigger spectrum of color than the human eye normally can. That's how I spotted the painted wire. It's got a different pigment than the grass."

"That's…useful." Shikamaru stares at me a moment, before turning his attention back to the wires "All their other traps were quick and dirty, as if they were moving fast. But…not this one."

"They may have stopped to rest. Perhaps one of them is injured." I sure hope that Neji is right, because an injured opponent is a good thing for us. The weaker they are when we find them, the better. "Or…is this part of the trap?" I sure hope not… Neji activates his Byakugan, scanning the area ahead for enemies. Then, he nods. "I see them!"

"Well, then let's go!" Naruto jumps to his feet in a hurry. "I'm dying to show these clowns what I've got!"

"Is that right? Kiba turns with a smirk. "Hate to disappoint ya, hotshot, but I've got a new jutsu I've been working on too."

"Yeah, me too." Chouji decides to finally join the metaphorical muscle flexing contest.

Seems Shikamaru is sick of it too. "Alright, calm down. First, we make a plan and get everything ready. Then, we go in and take em out." Then,Shikamaru looks to me, his expression very serious. "I want you to stay back and out of sight. If this turns out to be an ambush at all, then if the five of us get caught, we'll need you on the outside to swoop in if things get ugly. And in the worst case scenario…we'll need your medical skills to stay intact. Otherwise we're all dead."

I don't like being left out of the main plan, but I definitely see his point. "Fine, but if I feel like it reaches the point of no return, I will unleash holy hell on these guys. You've seen me fight, and you know that I was holding back during the exams. And I've only gotten stronger since then."

Shikamaru nods. "Agreed. But for now, you stay back and out of sight. You're on standby as medical support, and a last resort strike."

"Alright." As the boys split up, I seclude myself in the trees.

The first clue I have that everything is going to hell is when the first explosion happens. I groan and cover my ears, trying to block out the sounds, trying to resist the urge to go down there and help. It goes against all of my instincts to sit out a battle like this, especially when I'm literally almost in the middle of it.

I watch as Shikamaru and Neji are flushed out of hiding, and as Naruto, Chouji, and Kiba run interference, while Shikamaru traps the four enemy ninja with his shadow possession.

And…that's when it all goes downhill, and I once again see the logic in Shikamaru asking me to sit this part of the plan out. Because that big guy, the one with the orange hair, traps the five of them, plus Akamaru, in a huge earth barrier. Which, of course, leaves me not only free, but all alone out here without backup.

Great…of all times that I wish I'd learned how to wield lightning. I've got no ninjutsu that can crack through that barrier, and I certainly can't crack through it with my weak taijutsu. So, unless I want to go four on one, or three on one as the other enemy ninja pack up that coffin, from which I can sense Sasuke's chakra coming, and hightail it out of here, I'm stuck.

I've got a few options here. One, I can go after the other three on a suicide run and try to get Sasuke back, I can attack the big guy and try to free the others, or I can go along with Shikamaru's plan and stay out of sight and fulfill my duties as a medical ninja.

Of course, judging by the amount of noise coming out of that barrier, I'm going to guess that the boys are working on some kind of plan. That means that they're using up chakra, and probably a lot of it. So the best thing for me to do would be to conserve mine, and recharge them when they manage to escape.

Every second that passes is nerve-wracking, and it only gets worse when everything gets quiet. My anxiety rises, and I'm finding it kind of hard to keep from full-out panicking. So, I grab hold of the tee branch beneath me and take a deep breath, trying to center myself as much as possible. _They'll be fine…they're strong and determined, and they'll all find a way to get out of there without me charging in and going ballistic._

I have to keep my faith in them alive, no matter what. Giving up on them is not an option. No matter what, I have to believe that with all of their talents put together, that they'll find a way to-

A huge crash shakes me out of my thoughts and grabs my attention. And when I look down, I see Chouji crashing out of the side of the barrier closest to me, along with Neji, Naruto, Kiba, and Shikamaru. _They did it…_ I breathe a sigh of relief, before looking off in the direction that the other three enemies took off in. _Now, we just have to get past this guy, and we can resume the chase._ Unfortunately, it means that we've got about seven minutes of high speed chase to make up. And that's not going to be easy.

Down on the ground, Shikamaru and the others look kinda annoyed, probably because there's only one guy left. The others are long gone. He looks up into the trees, as though hoping that I didn't run off without them. Then, when he spots me, he waves his hand.

As instructed, I leap down from the trees and immediately notice a problem. They're all low on chakra. But that doesn't make any sense, unless… "Barrier ninjutsu that sucks up chakra?"

Shikamaru nods. "Good thing you weren't in there with us."

"Yeah…you have no idea…" Sighing slightly, I gather chakra in my hands, this time, for a purpose other than healing. One by one, I slap my hands against their backs, pumping huge amounts of chakra into each of them to replenish at least a bit of what they lost.

Kiba's eyes widen. "Whoa! How'd you do that!?"

"Chakra transfer." I take a deep breath and look over to the big guy, Jirobo, I think his friends called him. "You could call it an application of medical ninjutsu. I've got no shortage of chakra, so I just gave you all some to replace a bit of what you lost." They're maybe up to forty percent of what they had before. But that will have to do. Then, I look off into the trees. "I know which way the other ones headed, but we're going to have to get through this guy first."

Jirobo applauds us mockingly. "Not a bad bit of handiwork you guys, for a bunch of losers. And you even kept a little brat hidden away in the trees, just in case. What's his deal? He here to patchyou up when you get a booboo?"

My eye twitches. "I'm a girl, dumbass. And yes, I'm the medic."

He looks at me, unimpressed. "And you talk just like Tayuya. Annoying brat."

Annoyed, Naruto and Kiba go right on the attack, only for Neji to raise his voice. "Wait, you two, stop! There's no way we can take him head on, it's too dangerous."

Kiba scoffs. "We just tore through this clown's barrier. How tough can he be!?" Well, I guess he finds out just how tough when he launches an attack and gets tossed right back to the ground. Naruto has no better luck with a shadow clone partner.

Jirobo cracks his knuckles. "I'm gonna eat you guys for lunch!"

I cringe and crinkle up my nose at the thought. "You do know that cannibalism is bad, right? You can catch all sorts of nasty stuff from that." Well, technically, I'm making a joke, but still, this guy creeps me out.

Naruto and Kiba go right back in to fight, only to get tossed back again. If I didn't know any better, I'd call them masochists. And Jirobo is none too pleased. "You wouldn't even do as an appetizer."

"Careful, this guy's just getting warmed up!" Shikamaru's warning comes just in time as Jirobo tries to launch another barrier, only to be stopped in his tracks by Chouji's expansion talents.

During the tactical retreat, Neji grabs me and makes a run for it, regrouping with the others in the trees as I glare sourly at him. "I don't need to be carried, you know."

"It's just an extra precaution to avoid losing our medic right now." He puts me back down as the six of us get into a circle. "So, what now? Do we stay here and fight? Or do you want me to point us in the direction that his friends took off in?"

Shikamaru sighs. "We're running out of time. There's no choice…we've got to split up."

Naruto frowns. "What'd be the point in that?"

"No, he's right." Neji's eyes find Jirobo once more. "With all our chakra taken away like that, and Ciara weakening herself by giving us hers so that we can keep standing, which she can't do indefinitely…even between the six of us, he's not going to be easy to take out. And with every second that passes, Sasuke gets closer to the border. Once he crosses it, it will all be out of our hands. So, we should split into two groups. One to stop him, and one to follow Sasuke."

"Right…" Shikamaru turns to me. "You'll head the pursuit team. You'll be needed in case a fight breaks out with those other three."

"Yeah, but-" The ground breaks up beneath our feet, cutting off my words. "Damn it!" We all leap out of the way as trees come crashing down around us.

We've been found, so Shikamaru turns to me. "Ciara,you take Neji, Kiba, and Chouji, and head after Sasuke. Naruto…" Shikamaru shifts into battle mode. "You and I will handle this guy.

Jirobo laughs. "What are you gonna do? Play with my shadow again?" That's right, this guy has seen Shikamaru's tricks. This isn't going to be an easy fight for them. "Don't waste my time, kid. You already showed me your little parlor trick, and once was enough.

"That's funny, I seem to remember someone around here getting taken in by that parlor trick." Shikamaru's shadow is on the move, but I have my own doubts about how effective it will be.

As expected, it doesn't work. This guy's earth style is…well, incredible. Incredibly powerful, at least. Though I find that it lacks the finesse that Hiro's has.

"He's disappeared." Neji looks through the dust, and I try as well, seeing nothing.

Then, I get a very bad feeling in my gut. "No!" I leap into the air, an instinct honed by having an earth style user as a teammate. "He's gone through the ground!" I spin in the air to see him lifting up a gigantic boulder, if you can even call it a boulder at that point.

When he tosses it, we're all forced to split up and dodge, regrouping about a hundred meters away. And then, to make things worse, he comes through the ground again, this time, reaching for Shikamaru and grabbing him by the ankles, hanging the team leader upside down as he pops out of the ground like a daisy.

Jirobo chuckles at Shikamaru. "You're in charge of this rag-tag bunch, am I right? When you've got an idiot for a leader, the whole team suffers. Know what I mean?" He starts swinging Shikamaru around like a rag doll. "You don't wanna follow a guy like this! Here, let me get rid of him for you!" He hurls him across the battlefield, only for Chouji to expand and catch Shikamaru like a trampoline. "Aw…I try to help you guys out and look what you do." He smirks. "I don't know which is more pathetic. The fool, or those who follow him. Tell you what…you don't wanna keep working under the glum-faced shadow-lover, I'll just kill you now and put ya out of your misery."

Naruto's temper boils over. "It's time for you to shut your big mouth, or I'm gonna shut it for you!" Naruto's hands twitch as he gets ready to prepare an attack.

"Naruto!" Chouji stops Naruto in his tracks. And the look on his face is…rather terrifying, actually. "I'll handle him. This guy is mine."

"What the heck are you talking about!? This isn't the kind of guy you can take on your own!" Naruto may be right about that, but…considering that there are at least three more opponents…

"He's mine, I said!" Chouji is adamant about taking this guy on, despite the fact that it's almost a suicide mission. Then, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a smaller bag to hand to Shikamaru. "I know that Ciara already has some, but here, take these food pills for everyone, just in case."

"Chouji…" Shikamaru looks more concerned now than he has all mission. "You're not gonna-"

"Uh-huh." Chouji smile. "Don't worry. I've got my secret weapon with me."

Shikamaru takes the pills, staring at his friend. "Yeah, but Chouji, this is…" His voice dies in his throat, a first, as far as I've ever seen.

Jirobo smirks. "Oh…this is priceless. You think I'm gonna wait forever!? Enough of this! I'm taking you all out right here!"

Chouji puts himself between us and the orange-haired freak. "I've gt this, now get going!" He reaches into his back pocket, taking out what looks like…really big food pills? He downs the green one, and when Jirobo gets close, Chouji throws him for a loop, punching into the big guy's stomach and stopping him cold. "Shikamaru! Take everybody and get out of here! What did the six of us join together for!? If we lose Sasuke, we'll be just what this guy says we are! A stupid idiot of a leader and his band of rejects!"

Shikamaru looks like he's swallowing some seriously bitter cold medicine. "You'd better catch up with us, Chouji. You hear me?"

"Yeah! Get out of here!" He struggles to hold the giant man back. "Go already!"

"Fine!" I turn on heel in the direction that Sasuke was carried off in. "This way!" I leap into the trees, followed in short order by the boys. All of them except Chouji.

Shikamaru tosses around the food pills, while Neji looks on ahead. "Shikamaru…that food pill we saw Chouji take back there…it seemed like some sort of last-minute trump card. Do you really think he can win?"

"Yeah, I mean he said he had some sort of secret weapon on him."Kiba takes a pill for him and one for Akamaru, before tossing them back.

"Yeah, don't worry, Chouji's got a plan up his sleeve." Shikamaru sounds awfully confident in his teammate's chances. "He brought along with the the Akimichi Clan's secret Triple Threat. Pills that grant a person explosive power. There are three of them; green, yellow, and red. The amount of energy that each of those pills contains is absolutely massive."

"Oh…I gotcha, so that's why he was acting so confident!" Naruto smiles at the reassurance.

What Shikamaru is neglecting to tell that is that food pills aren't a miracle. Even the normal ones have side effects if you eat too many or eat them too often. I shudder to think what those special pills are going to do to Chouji when he eats them.

Akamaru starts to whimper, and Kiba sighs. "Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing myself." And I'm thinking that one of these days, I have to get Kiba to teach me how to speak dog.

"What do you mean?" Naruto looks confused, likely because he doesn't speak dog either. "What is he saying?"

"You know that Akamaru can tell an enemy's strength just by his scent, right?" Kiba's body starts to tense up a little, likely in worry. "He's worried that Chouji might not be able to take on that gargantuan alone, even with those pills to help him."

"He's right to be." Neji, as dutifully as ever, is scanning far ahead for our mission target. "If we're looking at it objectively, that giant's ability is an unknown. The chances of Chouji defeating him may be close to zero. However…that's very often the case in battle."

"Neji is right, that's just how a battle is." Shikamaru sighs. "We knew from the beginning that this mission wouldn't be child's play. It's life or death…"

I keep my eyes peeled for trouble, my anxiety only calmed by the conversation. "We're no strangers to having the odds stacked against us. Still, if Chouji believes that he can win, then that belief might just let him tap into the strength he needs to survive."

"Yes…and I've already anticipated the worst case scenario." Somehow, I already know what Shikamaru considers to be the worst case scenario. "Where each of us ends up fighting alone. And at this point, if we're not ready to lay down our lives for this, we might not be able to reach Sasuke in time." Then, he smiles. "Chouji is good enough to hold his own, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence. He thinks that out of all of us, he's the weakest link."

Kiba frowns. "Well, that's because the guy kinda is. I mean, anyone can see that. That's pretty much the whole reason he stayed behind back there, cause he wanted to be of some kind of use to us."

"You're wrong." Those few words have everyone's attention on me in an instant. "I know who the weakest link is, and it's not Chouji." I grit my teeth. "It's me."

"Huh?" Naruto and Kiba both turn to look at me, confused. And even Neji and Shikamaru look a little flabbergasted. So, Shikamaru stares at me. "Is this about being the medic,or…is it something else?"

"It's…not about being a medic." Not even close. "I…I'm a lot more powerful than any of you can imagine. I know that, and I know how much power is inside of me. But my body…it's too weak right now, I can't handle the power that's cooped up inside me. If I push too far, it will literally rip me to shreds. So here I am, with more chakra than I can handle, abilities that could put these guys in the ground easy, and I can't use any of it because it'll kill me if I even try! If I were three or four years older…" Then it wouldn't be a problem… "I haven't grown into my power yet. It's like trying to shove a million paper bombs into a tin can."

Naruto grimaces. "Ciara…you're not a tin can." I'm kinda surprised that he got the metaphor. "And you're stronger than just a million paper bombs."

That last part makes me laugh. "Yeah…maybe…"

Shikamaru chuckles. "So…then you're a double edged sword, with more chance of hurting yourself than your opponent, is that it?"

I nod. "Exactly. I hold back because if I don't, bad things will happen." That, and I have a feathered friend who is insistent on protecting me from both his power and my own. "And sometimes, it's not even my choice…I'm a time bomb waiting to go off." I look over at Kiba. "So, you see, Chouji isn't the weak link. I am. But I'm going to do my best anyway."

"And don't underestimate Chouji." Shikamaru grins. "Because more than me and Neji, or any of us here, Chouji's got strength. And I believe in him, I always have."

"And you should, because everyone has their strengths." I just have to grow into mine. I breathe deeply, my head spinning a little. "Can we stop for a sec. I'm…not the best when it comes to long runs." In truth, my stamina sucks.

Shikamaru nods. "Yeah, we can take a short break." He stops on a branch, then drops to the ground. "We'll pick it up again in five minutes."

"Thanks…" I lean against a tree, then look at the smooth bark. "Hey…Shikamaru, let's make a sign for Chouji to follow so that he can find us."

He glances over, then pulls out a kunai. "Yeah. He will beat that guy, and when he does, he'll come find us." He carves an arrow into the tree, marking our path for when Chouji finishes up his fight.

"Heh, no doubt about it." Kiba's tune has changed drastically. "If anyone can beat that guy, it's Chouji."

Naruto pulls out a kunai of his own. "Well, as long as we've stopped…" He goes to the bark and starts carving a message into it, followed by Kiba.

Just for the hell of it, I pull out Shisui's tanto and carve a message of my own into the bark below the arrow. _Take good care of yourself, Chouji. We're all gonna make it out of this alive, that's a promise!_

Then, as we finish up, Shikamaru grins. "Alright everyone, let's get Sasuke back before Chouji catches up."

I take a deep breath, steadying myself as excitement pulses through me. "Right, let's go!" And the five of us take off through the trees, heading straight for Sasuke and the three remaining Sound Ninja.


	67. Splitting Up

**Okay, so since there's been some interest in which, if any filler arcs I'm planning on doing (since there's about a dozen and a half of them before Shippuden rolls around), I was thinking three short ones.**

 **1) Raiga and the Kurosuki family (a chance for Ciara to captain a mission again)**

 **2) The bomb threat on the Leaf (because thats a crazy little arc that I have a bit of a liking for, and could take just a couple of chapters, maybe three tops)**

 **3) Rescue Gaara's student (because…Gaara, I wanna see Gaara again after this arc, and because it wraps up the first series before they disappear from the village for two and a half years so it'll make fora good transition)**

 **Thoughts on those choices?**

 **And yes, Ciara will be the one duking it out with Kimimaro. It's going to be brutal, I'm warning you now (even though it won't happen until next chapter). This chapter also puts the story word count at over 300k, which is a milestone I'm quite proud of. Not that it's anywhere close to finished yet.**

* * *

When Akamaru barks, Kiba nods. "We're getting close."

I look around, noticing no traps left behind for us. _Seems like they feel rather safe…that's not a smart thing to do._

"That's strange…" Neji scans the area with his Byakugan. "It's been quite a long time, and we still haven't encountered a single trap."

"Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Seems like they feel pretty safe, if they're not bothering to try and ensnare us." I smirks slightly. "I'm not sure whether to be relieved or offended."

Shikamaru nods. "It looks like we've been underestimated. They're cocky. They think we're all dead now, and their big guy's the only one following them. They don't need to set a trap for their own man, do they?

"Those idiots, they think we're do weak!" Naruto growls, his face twisting up slightly.

"It seems you're right about our enemy, Shikamaru." Even Neji looks irritated. "And it's insulting to be underestimated like this."

"I hear ya, and now, we can take em by surprise. I've got an idea." Nothing good can possibly come from those words, I just know it, not even if Shikamaru is the one who said them.

I sigh. "And what's your idea?" This had better be good, otherwise we're in deep shit.

Shikamaru brings his hands together, casting a transformation and turning himself into that Jirobo guy. "This."

Groaning, I shake my head. "Do you seriously think that you can impersonate their teammate?" There's so many ways that this can go wrong that I can't even figure out where to begin in order to list them all, let alone sort and categorize them.

"I think so. I observed his habits and mannerisms before we left, so I can probably pull off a decent impersonation." It's really weird to hear Shikamaru speaking in Jirobo's gravelly voice, but there's nothing for it.

So, I just point the way. "Alright, if you're sure. But if this backfires, we'll step in and be there to provide backup, got it?"

"Yeah." Shikamaru, as Jirobo, disappears from our group and goes on ahead while the rest of us keep a decent distance.

Neji is the only one with eyes on Shikamaru as our teammate approaches the other group. I would keep my eyes on them, but there's a lot of forest in the way. Minutes later, he curses quietly. "He's been found out."

"Damn it." I bite my lip and think up a plan. "Okay. I'm the long range specialist, and the rest of you are best fit for close quarters. I hate using anyone as a decoy for my own attacks, but…"

"But that is the hand that we have been dealt, and there is no helping it." Neji focuses on ahead as we get closer and closer to the Sound Ninja. "It is not your fault. You are simply the only long range fighter that we set out with. Our mid-range fighter is currently occupied, leaving the three of us to serve as diversions. Those are simply the cards we have."

I take a deep breath and sigh, then turn to Naruto. "Get your shadow clones ready, I think we're going to need them. Kiba, I want you and Akamaru ready to go. We are not losing Shikamaru in there."

"Got it!" The boys are ready to go, and so, splitting up, we all make our way into the fray.

I take a far more stealthy approach, concealing myself in the trees. And as soon as Shikamaru gets caught up with the web, Naruto moves in with his shadow clones. Though they just caught up by an enormous spider web. _So…this guy makes and uses webs just like a poisonous spider, huh? I wonder if he uses any poison-coated weapons…_

I watch as Kiba attacks next, going in for a solid strike. If I unleash a fireball in here, I'll probably take out half the forest. I wouldn't put it past those webs to be waterproof, they certainly look sticky, though. So, that leaves me with wind style as my best option.

Kiba and Akamaru miss because this guy is basically a spider and an acrobat all wrapped into one. Not only that, but he has Kiba and Akamaru right where he wants them, stuck to a couple of branches.

Coming flying in as silently as a hawk is Neji, and he just about gets a hit in on this spider guy. Unluckily, he gets all caught up in a cocoon while the spider guy starts playing a game of roulette with Naruto's clones.

I wait until he's hurling one of his solid silk boomerangs at the last clone before letting myself fall from the trees. Naruto's real body goes up behind him, screaming as he attacks.

My turn.

"Bye bye spider threads." I smirk as I spin through the air, hurling winds blades in every direction, cutting through spider webs and tree trunks alike. Neji's cocoon rips wide open, Shikamaru is released from his sticky situation, and the threads holding Kiba and Akamaru down are easily destroyed.

As I come face to face with the spider guy, I smirk. "Hi."

He growls and dodges the flurry of blades, flipping through the air like he's on wires, which I suppose, in a way, he is.

Though, when he pulls Naruto with a couple of his threads, it looks like I'm not the only one with the ability to cut through those spider threads. Neji comes flying through the air, cutting the ropes to Naruto and making off with him as I flip head over heels and hit the ground running.

Well, we didn't do as much damage as I hoped, but as I jump back into the trees with Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, and Naruto, I smile. "Well, we got Shikamaru back in one piece, that's good."

The spider guy growls. "I trapped you all, how did you get free? You can throw all sorts of ninjutsu at it and it won't break."

Neji eyes him carefully, "Your spider webs have a chakra base. Between a master of wind style, and my Gentle Fist…they didn't stand a chance." His nearly white eyes flick over our foe. "His jutsu…I think I'm the only one who can handle it."

I frown. "You just said that I could wreck it too. Did you change your mind?"

"No, it's not that…" Neji shakes his head. "But you're a long range fighter, and I believe that he is as well. The only way to beat an opponent like this is to close the distance. And if that were to happen…" He looks back at me and looks me up and down. "You would lose in a battle of taijutsu, especially against a man with eight limbs."

And while that definitely stings my pride, I have to admit that Neji is right. "So…you're planning to take him on, yourself?"

He nods. "Go on, you guys. I'll take care of him."

Akamaru whines, crawling his way into Kiba's jacket. I raise an eyebrow, and Kiba translates. "Well guys, looks like this guy is even stronger than that big guy we fought before. Much stronger." That's what I was afraid of.

"We're going to have to go one on one if we're going to have any chance of success. Isn't that what you said?" Neji's voice is a little flat, but very determined. It's actually rather admirable, in light of the situation.

"Yeah…that's what we agreed…" Shikamaru looks down with a grave expression.

"The worst case scenario…" I grit my teeth. Just great…

Neji steps forward. "And besides, if we all stay here, we won't be able to catch up with Sasuke."

What about Chouji? He hasn't come back?" Akamaru whines at Kiba's words. It seems even the puppy is worried about our lives.

"We all embarked on this mission to find Sasuke and bring him back home to the …that's not the only reason that we've come." Neji is definitely right on that one. "We are on this mission to protect a fellow shinobi, to defend the bond of the Hidden Leaf Village. At the Third Hokage's funeral…when Iruka spoke…do you remember his words?" He pauses a moment. "Listen, Sasuke's out there right now, heading toward Orochimaru. We can't allow such evil to take someone from our village. That's not our way. What's more…Naruto…" Neji turns and smirks. "Sometimes, your eyes are even better than mine. Wherever he is, Sasuke is in the darkness. Now, get going, I'll be right behind you."

Neji's resolve really impresses me. I guess Naruto beating the shit out of him during the Chunin Exams really shook up a few things in his head. And maybe…in his heat as well. So, I pat him on the back with both hands. "Take this and win, Neji. Take it, survive, and come back to us." I shoot a burst of chakra through his body, the fatigue already starting to hit me.

Shikamaru gets to his feet. "Well, alright. Let's do this, then."

"When you catch up with us, make sure you bring Chouji too." Seems like despite his earlier comments, Kiba is really turning a few of his opinions around. Good.

Neji leans back against my hands for a moment, before stepping towards his foe. "Of course I will." I'm not sure who he's answering, but I suppose that it's the same answer either way.

I jump away after Shikamaru, Naruto, and Kiba, glancing back over my shoulder as Neji slowly disappears from one that that doesn't disappear from sight is that spider guy's attack. It comes right at us.

"Incoming!" Naruto twists around, trying to dodge the attack.

"On it!" I slash my tanto through the air, blasting a little bit of wind chakra through them and knocking the attack away, before landing hard on another branch and leaping off it. Another attack starts to come out of nowhere, but it falters as Neji goes into battle.

I look back over my shoulder until there is nothing more to see, my heart hurting at the thought of leaving yet another person behind to fight alone. It's so wrong. If I was stronger…then I could protect them. If I didn't suck so much at taijutsu, I would have been the one to stay, and I could have won by now.

If…if…so many ifs…

Fifteen minutes later, Kiba look back for an instant. "Well, it looks like it's just the four of us now."

"I don't think you have to worry about that!" Naruto hops head, grinning. "Chouji and Neji are gonna catch up in no time."

I smile sadly at the thought of the absolute worst case scenario in this worst case of scenarios. "I hope you're right, Naruto…I really do…"

He nods eagerly. "Chouji's got his trump card with him. And don't forget, I fought Neji in the Chunin Exams. So I know…that guy is a true genius."

Naruto's words make me smile. "A true genius, huh? Maybe that'll work in his favor this time. Because last time, it didn't work out for him so well. You kicked his ass."

Kiba sniffs at the air again and signals us. "They're close."

"There's only two of them left…against the four of us, I like those odds." Shikamaru is right to like those odds. "If we play things right, the next time we meet, we might be able to wrap things up once and for all.

"I'll say! Two against four, no sweat!" Naruto grins from ear to ear, more optimistic about this than I am.

But…knowing our luck, they might end up getting reinforcements in the middle of a fight. I mean, in the Land of Waves, we ran into a powerful rogue ninja, Orochimaru crashed the Chunin Exams, we ran into another rogue ninja in the Land of Tea, and after having to leave two of our teammates behind, are we seriously hoping that nothing else will go wrong? "We have good odds for now…there's no guarantee that they'll stay that way."

"Hey, what do you mean two against four!?" Kiba looks rather affronted, and then…his dog barks.

Shikamaru laughs sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Akamaru. You're right, it's two against five, I like those odds even better."

"Wait until they see our new technique! These clowns won't know what hit em, right boy!?" I seriously need to learn how to speak dog one of these days. I feel so out of the loop when that puppy yips.

"Don't worry about a thing!" Naruto takes a particularly powerful jump ahead. "All I gotta do is my shadow clone jutsu and the show's over!"

"Well that's comforting to know." Shikamaru shoots Naruto an annoyed sideways glance. "All the same, we're working as a team here, right? Just stick to the plan."

I resist the urge to groan. "Uh…which plan at this point? It's undergone so many revisions that I'm not even sure what to call it anymore…"

Shikamaru sighs. "Nevermind…the most important thing is to get them in range before the sun goes down."

"And should that fail…I have thermal vision." I blink slightly, my world still abnormally full of color. _And thank you for lending me your eyes for so long. It really helps._

 _It is of no consequence, chick. You are doing this for your friends. I will never begrudge you that._ I'm not entirely sure, but some days I kind of feel like I hit the jackpot with Suzaku. Like, of every possible demon that could be hanging out in my body, I just happened to get the nicest one, I think. If there's a nicer one, I definitely want to meet them.

"Well, then let's hit it!" Kiba takes off, leaving the three of us to follow along behind him.

We've been running most of the day, and with the sun going down, the fatigue is really starting to set in. I'm not blessed with Naruto's endless stamina, so this kind of pace for this long is hard on me. And we're getting pretty close to the border, which means that the distance we've covered is immense. If we don't end this soon, we're going to be in serious trouble.

Kiba tries to pick up the pace again. "Hurry! They're just ahead!"

"No!" Shikamaru shakes his head. "We're close enough. We'll stay right on their tail, but we'll maintain this distance."

"What the heck are you talkin' about?" Naruto clearly wants to hurry this up and just grab Sasuke at the first opportunity.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, is trying to keep a level head, despite inevitable exhaustion. "We'll keep them in our sights, but we won't attack until sunrise."

Naruto's eyes widen. "That's crazy! We can't afford to wait until then! What about Sasuke!?"

"Yeah, he's right! And besides, if we're gonna hit em with a surprise attack, it'll be an even bigger surprise is we hit em in the dark!" Kiba has a point, but it's still a bad idea.

Shikamaru grimaces. "The darkness might give us an edge at the first moment of contact, but after that, it would only put us at a disadvantage, alright? Don't forget what we're really after. We want to keep them occupied just long enough to get Sasuke out of there. That'll take precision and split second timing. We need to be able to see clearly. We can't risk going in blind, wandering around in the dark. Once they knew what we were up to, all they would have to do is fall back and guard Sasuke's coffin. They could take up a defensive position and wait for us to come to them. The advantage would be all on their side. Course, things would be a lot different if we had Neji and his Byakugan."

Kiba growls lowly, before calming back down. "Okay, well what about Ciara's eyes? You said tat you had thermal vision, right? And you could see the whole color spectrum. Doesn't that give us an advantage?"

"Well, it could…" There's a lot of problems with that kind of sight though. "But thermal vision isn't nearly as clean as Neji's x-ray vision. Heat signatures can throw my aim off by a few centimeters, which can turn a debilitating hit into nothing more than a scratch. As for the color spectrum, that's not much use in the dark. But, if you guys feel like providing the distraction…I could make an attempt at dragging off the coffin." It makes me shake a little to say that word, since it makes it feel like Sasuke is dead. Never before have I so badly wanted to inherit some visual prowess from my mom's side of the family tree. Having the same eyes as Neji would really come in handy at a time like this.

"Yeah, I already took that into account. I just don't think that thermal vision is going to cut it. But…" Shikamaru glances back at me through the waning light. "If you happen to have night vision, feel free to say so."

"Not good enough to do what you're asking…" I suppose that I have a little night vision, provided that the moon and stars are out and shining light on the world, but not enough to see in pitch black. So it's hardly worth mentioning to them.

"Well, then what about me and Akamaru and our sense of smell?"

"I didn't forget about those sensitive noses of yours." Shikamaru's eyes flick between each of us. "But even so, in this part of the woods, they've got the geography in their favor. What's more….what's the sense of attacking now, when my jutsu is no help. The moonlight's too dim, and there are too many clouds passing overhead for my shadow possession to be effective."

"That's fair enough." I look up to see the full moon. "Best to attack in about eight hours. If we're lucky, they'll eventually stop for the night, and we'll be able to get some rest too. This pace is really hard on me. I just don't have the kind of stamina that you guys do…"

A sigh escapes Shikamaru. "And there's that too. It's a drag…but to be completely safe, we've got to wait till daylight."

"I don't know…" Kiba growls frustratedly.

"I agree!" Naruto's opinion kind of comes out of left field, all things considering. "Shikamaru's our leader, and if he says we wait, then we're gonna wait."

"I just hope I'm right…" And I hope that Shikamaru is right too, otherwise this is all going to get very ugly, very fast.

Naruto looks back at me, then stops quickly. "Ciara, you're tired, right? I'll carry you for a while, so get on my back and sleep until the sun comes up."

I glance at him uncertainly, before nodding and draping my arms around his neck, letting him lift me up. "If anything happens, wake me up, okay?"

"Alright, now go to sleep." He shifts me higher on his back. "Wow, you're really light."

I grumble quietly and rest my head on his shoulder. "It's not my fault I haven't hit puberty yet…" I know full well that I'm tiny and weigh almost nothing, but he doesn't have to rub it in, even unintentionally.

Well, at least his back is a comfortable enough place to fall asleep. He's definitely got that going for him.

* * *

My eyes twitch open as sunlight streams through them. I yawn slightly as I rest my head on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm awake now, you can put me down." I definitely feel better after several hours of sleep. I just don't know how they do it, go all day and night without taking a break.

Shikamaru nods at me now that I'm conscious again. "Alright, time to move in."

"Okay." I slip off Naruto's back, find my feet, and follow them as we pick up the pace, circle around, and carefully cut off the two Sound Ninja who still have hold of Sasuke.

From my hiding place, I hear the girl curse quietly. "And of course, now that we need em, there's no sign of Jirobo or Kidomaru."

"Sorry, just us!" Clone Naruto flips out a kunai, grinning tiredly. As he and clones of Shikamaru and Kiba make their move while we hang back and hide in the shadows.

Of course, having been out of it for most of the night, I'm more than a little disappointed to find that Chouji and Neji still haven't caught up with us. And that means…that they're probably too injured to make it this far. _I just hope that they're not…_ I shake my head, I can't afford to be thinking like that right now.

"Who needs those two? I can handle these guys myself!" The man with what looks like two heads springs at us. This guy must be some kind of anatomical nightmare.

The Naruto clone tosses his kunai to give himself an opening as he charges up a Rasengan. His Shikamaru and Kiba transformed clones charge in to give Naruto some time to get ready.

Getting himself caught, Clone Naruto provides the perfect distraction as Kiba moves in to attack, boring a hole straight through Clone Naruto in order to get to the two-headed freak. Or rather, past him. And in a perfect little maneuver, Kiba takes the chance to fly right by the girl, Tayuya, I think she was called, and grabs the coffin containing Sasuke. Now, all he has to do it get it to me so that I can crack it open and examine Sasuke's condition.

The two Sound Ninja collide, and Kiba tosses the coffin to Naruto, who's stuck by my side this whole time. He looks at me desperately. "We need to get Sasuke out of this thing! He could be hurt!"

"I know!" I touch the coffin, and feel an incredibly…well, all I can say is that it's evil, dark…there's an incredibly dark power about the coffin. "This is…" I'm actually scared to crack it open. I have no idea what will happen if and when I do. I grit my teeth. "Let's get out of here first, okay!?"

"Alright!" Naruto takes off with the coffin in hand, and me right by his side. Kiba and Shikamaru bring up the rear as the four of us take off with our precious cargo.

Shikamaru smirks. "Heh, just as I thought, they left themselves wide open. Sometimes, being so sure of your own strength can be a weak spot."

"Well, whatever, it worked!" Naruto is far more concerned with the coffin, than debating the hows and whys of that ambush.

Our resident genius rolls his eyes. "It's about teamwork, Naruto. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If we just work together, nothing can stop us."

"Which is really bad math, but whatever." I can't help the smile rising to my face. "Let's just get out of here and fast. We need to get to a safe place so that I can open this thing up and get emergency first aid ready. I don't know what they did to him, but I doubt that it's good." Then, I sense two incoming chakra signatures, and I grit my teeth. "We have enemies incoming!"

With black marks on their bodies resembling those I saw on Sasuke, we lead the man with two heads right into a paper bomb trap. Though it sets half the trees on fire. The rest of it happens so fast. Akamaru getting pinned down, Kiba going back for him, The Sound Ninja meeting him there, and then the bomb going off.

I try to peer through the smoke, but it's no use. "Kiba! Akamaru!"

Shikamaru curses. "I can't see them!"

"Come on, what's happening?" Naruto is going into panic mode. "Where are they!?"

"You're mine now!" Tayuya comes out of nowhere, heading straight for us.

"Kiba and Akamaru are still gone!" Naruto puts himself between Tayuya and the coffin holding Sasuke.

Our genius' hand twitches towards his tool pouch as he watches the approaching redhead. "And we've got another one to deal with." He glares slightly at her. "There's no other way, I'll have to take care of this one. You two take the coffin and carry on with the mission."

"Shikamaru…" Naruto's big blue eyes turn a worried look onto Shikamaru.

Then, Tayuya stops, her eyes wide. "What!? What are you doing here!?"

I'm not sure whether to be terrified or impressed, because this guy's presence just drops out of nowhere. I turn to see him land right on the coffin, grabbing it, and quickly jumping out of our reach. And consider that he has that same weird ass-bow that Orochimaru's got…I'd say its safe to say where he came from and who he's working for.

This was not, however, in the calculations. And Shikamaru realizes that quick enough. "Sorry you two, looks like I miscalculated."

"Well, you might have,but…" I had a feeling that something like this was going to happen. "We've still got one more person than they do."

Tayuya calls him Kimimaro, so I suppose that sort of dispels some of the mystery surrounding this guy. But to say that this guy looks exotic, with his white hair and crimson ringed eyes, would be an understatement. He looks at us with a certain boredom. "You were taking too long, Tayuya. And what of our comrades, our other three men? This, from the members of the former Sound Ninja Five…"

"Why have you come back here, your body is…by now, your body should be-" Tayuya's words intrigue me, because it means that this guy is probably not nearly at full strength. That gives us an advantage.

"My body is too devastated to move on its own anymore. I used the power of my mind." Okay, definitely an advantage, then. If this guy is injured or sick, that just balances the scales a bit, if not turning things in our favor. Not that I'm naive enough to underestimate him anyway. Sick or not, this guy is good. "I understand much more now. The strength of my life force is intensifying since escaping the prison of human flesh. I've had a taste of Lord Orochimaru's magnificent dream…this vessel is an important part of his dream. It has the flesh that Lord Orochimaru desires. But you have taken too much time retrieving it."

"You're disgusting." I can't believe the way that this guy is talking about Sasuke, like hes some kind of doll, or a change of clothes, or some kind of meal. It's like he's not even human to them.

"Hey jerk!" Naruto is on his feet in an instant. "I've had just about enough of this nonsense you're yacking about! I'm taking Sasuke back now!" He leaps from the branch, going straight for Kimimaro, only to be thrown back into Shikamaru's arms by Tayuya.

As soon as Kimimaro races off with Sasuke's coffin, Shikamaru's game face goes on. And after a few moments, I see the signal. He wants me and Naruto to go on and continue the chase. Luckily, she seems to think that I'm just the medic, because she pays me no mind. Classic mistake. A medic is more than capable of being exceptionally dangerous. That became rather obvious when I tussled with Kabuto.

And while the boys distract her with an excessively loud display, Naruto sails right past her, and I take the opportunity to race right by, the wind at my heels as I catch up to Naruto.

The sounds of Tayuya's anger echoes through the forest as I keep pace with Naruto. "Alright, so it's just you and me now. It's go time!"

"Yeah!" Naruto's rage starts to boil over, orange-red chakra enveloping him in his fury.

For the sake of safety, I take a few steps back from him, giving him a respectful, but not overly unfamiliar berth. After all, I'm not afraid of him in the slightest, I just don't want to make him any angrier than he already is.

Because the last thing either of us needs is to provoke the fox into action.


	68. Last of the Kaguya

**Alright…time for the feathers to start flying. Well, in a thousand words or so, gotta get Naruto and Sasuke out of the way first. And yes, I realize that someone is rather eager to see Gaara appear. He'll show up towards the end. And it'll be a little fluffy. Just a little.**

 **But I do aim to make you cringe just a little during this chapter. After all, the fighting is not going to be pleasant, at all. It's also a bit of setup for a couple of chapters from now.**

* * *

Luckily for the two of us, Kimimaro isn't particularly fast, and we manage to chase him into a nice, wide open field. And Naruto is even more eager than I am to get this party started.

"Hey!" Naruto lands hard on his feet in the grass. "Over here!" His eyes are scarlet, and the whisker marks on his face are dark and jagged. He's so angry that he's unconsciously calling on the fox for help. That's definitely not a good sign. There's no reasoning with him when he's like this. If there was, I would definitely give it a try.

"Let's see…" His eyes slide over as us though completely uninterested in the fact that he's got a fight on his hands. "How shall I destroy you?" Then, I'm pretty sure he notices the eyes. Naruto's eyes. And maybe mine, though I don't really care if he's looking at my eyes or not. "Interesting…"

A feral growl is what Naruto's voice has now become. "Tell me what Orochimaru's planning to do! And why the heck is he trying to get Sasuke so bad!?"

Kimimaro is silent for a while, before closing his eyes. "Lord Orochimaru has already acquired the immortality jutsu, but a vast amount of time is required to obtain every jutsu, and everything he wants from this world.

"So what!? What does that have to do with Sasuke!?" Naruto's fangs and claws are lengthening, which means that his patience is running out.

"Just because he is immortal…doesn't mean his body can maintain itself forever. So before his flesh decays, a new, strong body must be made into a vessel for his soul." Kimimaro's words make me want to puke. Like hell is Orochimaru going to use Sasuke for that.

 _Wait…_ My mind flicks back to our own encounter during the Chunin Exams. _Is that…what he wanted me for too?_ Imagining that creepy old man forcing his soul into my body is…not a pleasant thought, to say the least. _No way…there is no way that's going to happen to Sasuke! That's sick and twisted and-_ I can't even think up an insult appropriate enough to describe what I'm hearing. Or inappropriate enough, as it were.

Naruto…is taking it about as well as I am, just a lot louder. "Are you saying…that he's going to use Sasuke's body!?" The very notion only seems to make him angrier, more feral than before. "No…not Sasuke!" His chakra starts to run wild. "I won't let you do it!"

And…that's my cue to get the hell out of the way, because Naruto is going to unleash his clones while in a feral, fox-like state. No matter how much I would like to help him, getting in the middle of that right now would be suicide.

With a thousand angry Naruto clones on the field, all I can do is stand back and watch. If I get caught up in that, it's not going to be pretty. Even if volunteering for this mission means that I have a death wish, I definitely don't wish to die from the wrath of a thousand Naruto fox clones. So, I find a nearby tree and jump up into the branches, sitting down to watch as the all-out brawl begins.

The sheer amount of chakra in the air is astounding. What's even more impressive is the way that Kimimaro moves, slicing easily and fluidly through the clones. If nothing else, Naruto's temper should give me a good chance to get a preliminary measure of Kimimaro's style and skills. Though…what disturbs me is the fact that what he's using to slice through the clones looks suspiciously like bones. His bones. _A kekkai genkai, maybe? That would explain it… Or maybe he's just using a forbidden jutsu. He's one of Orochimaru's men, after all, so it wouldn't surprise me…_

Kimimaro seems fast and flexible, though I might have him beat in both those areas. His mental prowess, which according to him is what's making his body move, seems to be quite impressive as well. This…is not going to be an easy opponent to beat. Especially since he's dispatching dozens, even hundreds of clones with ease. He moves almost like he's flying, able to even turn Naruto's attacks against other clones.

Then, comes something I think he called the Willow Dance. Whatever it is, precisely, it's a faster sort of taijutsu than he was using before. _Great…a taijutsu expert. That's just what I needed._ It's made even worse by the fact that this kekkai genkai of his involves bones protruding not only from his hands, but from his elbows and knees as well, and likely several other places as well.

As though to prove me right, he slips down the shoulder of his clothes, then removes a sword made of bone from his left shoulder. It looks rather sharp to me. And…we've got another problem too. The coffin is starting to smoke as Kimimaro and Naruto stare each other down.

Now, he starts something he calls the Camellia Dance. _Seems like this guy is as fond of his dancing as I am. Except his is a taijutsu dance, not a ninjutsu one…_ That's not going to be fun.

Naruto throws a hail of shuriken at Kimimaro, only for the bone sword to slice through every single one. Then, he goes back on the attack. I do notice that he has little regard for defending himself, preferring to dodge, but still leaving himself wide open were he fighting a faster opponent. Unfortunately, Naruto is not a faster opponent. In fact, I don't know who would be more disadvantaged, Naruto, not being particularly fast and agile, or me, who just sucks at taijutsu.

This new dance of his is a lot slower, though, it's strange. But at least it's fairly straightforward. He just charges at whichever opponent strikes his fancy. In a one on one, this dance of his would be far less effective, because it's just so easy to predict. Wide, sweeping swings that are easy to track with the eyes. I'd be able to duck and dodge them easily.

And with every clone that disappears, I get a little more information, and the battlefield becomes just a little safer for when I finally get the chance to pop in.

But…I suppose that I should have known that everything would go to shit. That kind of thing tends to happen around us. Because as soon as Naruto's clones are whittled down to nothing…Sasuke's coffin starts to smoke like a bonfire covered in green leaves, and it starts to shake like there's a storm. And one of the darkest chakras I've ever sensed emanates from inside. _Could that really be Sasuke…?_

"Naruto!" I leap from my branch, sailing through the air with my hands on my tanto. And I land deftly between him and Kimimaro.

Orochimaru's little henchman looks at me with a slight scowl. "Ah yes…the one who saw fit to stand back as her partner was helpless. Have you decided that playing the coward was too much of an embarrassment?"

"What'd you say!?" It's rather nice to have Naruto get angry on my behalf, but there's no need for him to get even more worked up.

I laugh dryly. "What, and get in the middle of him and a thousand angry clones? No thank you. Only an idiot would walk into something like that." And I do pride myself on not being an idiot. Letting Naruto drag me into pranks is one thing, rushing into that would be considerably less funny.

"Yes…I see." The way he looks at me creeps me out, almost as much as Orochimaru's stare did. Okay, well maybe not quite that creepy, but honestly, no one is in the snake man's league.

I shift backwards slightly, my eyes on the coffin. "Naruto, it looks like we've got-" The seals on the coffin break, and the whole thing explodes. "Trouble…"

In the dark smoke is a figure with long, spiky hair. And as the smoke clears, their darkened skin and lightened hair is revealed. It's…Sasuke, but it's also not Sasuke. _What the hell did they do to him!?_

Then, the darkness of his skin recedes as though burning away, and his hair shortens, darkening to the raven black that I've become accustomed to. Upon seeing Sasuke alive and well, those terms applied rather loosely, Naruto relaxes, his fox-like features receding, his eyes turning back to blue, and his entire demeanor calming.

"Sasuke…" Naruto sounds stunned, before grinning and laughing. "Hey, Sasuke! What're you hanging out with these losers for!? C'mon buddy, let's go home! Sasuke…? C'mon…" Naruto's bright and cheery attitude disappears as rather horrible laughter comes, I believe, from Sasuke's mouth. "C'mon, everyone's there waitin' for ya. S-sasuke, you hear me?"

I swallow nervously as Sasuke starts laughing even louder. "Naruto…something's wrong. Really wrong." I've never seen Sasuke like this before. It's like…he's a different person.

"Sasuke! Listen to me!" Naruto's voice rings out in a panic. "What is wrong with you!? Have you gone deaf or something!?" Then, Sasuke disappears from the field, racing off through the trees. "Hey, wait! Sasuke!"

When Naruto moves to follow him, Kimimaro strikes. "It's no use…now die!"

That shit is not okay with me. The tanto come out in a flash as I put myself between the two of them. "Naruto, get out of here! Go find Sasuke!"

"But Ciara! You can't fight him, he's too strong!" Naruto's concern is touching, but there's no need for it, not now.

I push Kimimaro back, using the leverage I have from my inferior height to slide his bone sword out of the way. "Naruto, You need to go after Sasuke right now. I'll hold Kimimaro here. You just go grab Sasuke and get back here as soon as you can, alright!"

"But-"

"Go!" I whirl around and blades of wind, not very powerful, but well-controlled erupt all around me. "Hurry!"

Naruto stays a moment longer, but then turns tail and runs after Sasuke while I keep Kimimaro pinned down. That proves to be far from easy, as he's taller and stronger than me. And once again, I curse the fact that I'm still just a tiny kid. No matter, I'll just have to compensate for my small body in other ways.

Kimimaro frowns at me as he brings his sword down again. "You're…not a close-combat fighter. Would it not have been better for you to go, and your worthless friend to stay?"

I grit my teeth and hop back to get some distance. "That's my business and not yours!" My hands move, and quickly enough, I'm spewing water bullets in every direction, watching his movements as he dodges each ad every one. _He's faster than I thought…I guess that won't work._

He's right about one thing, though, I'm not meant for close combat. Which is why instead of letting wind erupt from a weapon, this time, it's going to come from my favorite place. "You're not the only one who can dance." I jump high into the air and twist myself around. "Wind Style: Waning Crescent Dance!" There's no need to use blunt blades. If this guy is supposed to be on Death doorstep already, then there's no need to hold back.

Wind blades rain down on the battlefield, and for those few that he can't dodge, he deflects them with that damn bone sword of his. And then, as I fall back towards the ground, he readies that sword of his, aiming right at my heart.

I bet he didn't count on the fact that I can fly. _Chick, this man is dangerous. I can lend you strength and speed, but it will not last for long._

Hearing that voice really makes me feel better as I do a loop and land back down in the grass, the feathers extending from around my ears ruffling my hair up and the feathery markings on my face warming considerably. _Alright, sounds good. I doubt that I'm going to win, but maybe I can hold out long enough for Naruto to get Sasuke back, or for this guy to just kick the bucket on his own._

 _I hope that is the case…_ At his words, my body feels hotter, lighter, stronger. And I grin as I pull the tanto back out into my hands, both blades shining in the sunlight. "Come on."

Narrowing his eyes, he speeds towards me, bone blade raised. I take a step forward, catching the blade between my tanto, then whirling around to hurl the blade away. He pulls it back in, nicking my arm with the blade and drawing blood that runs down to my wrist in scarlet streams.

Biting back a slight groan, I bend down and move to sweep his legs out from under him. My taijutsu may suck compared to some of my peers, but I was still good enough to get decent marks in it at the academy. It was a mandatory class, after all. As he leans to the side, keeping his balance despite the sweep, I slam my elbow into his chest, trying to at least wind him. That fails badly.

"What the hell are you!?" Whatever is wrong with his body must be something serious, because it's like he doesn't even feel pain at all. Tanto still in hand, I tap my hands together, my wings acting up ad shooting feathers out in all directions.

He deflects the feathers with that sword of his, moving in again to try and kill me. "Kimimaro of the Kaguya Clan."

"Kaguya Clan?" _That must be where he gets his kekkai genkai from._ "Never heard of it. Though I suppose that now I know where that bone ability of yours comes from. A bloodline trait from your clan."

"Is that so…?" His eyes narrow as he slashes at me again, this time stabbing into my side, painting the red of my shirt even darker with my blood. "And who exactly are you? Who looks so much like a demon…"

"Ciara Shiryugu…" _The only dragon left in the Land of Fire…_ "Not that it matters to you!" I race in to stab at him again. Big mistake.

Bones poke out of his chest in such a way that it makes me think that it' got to be his entire ribcage sticking out of his surprisingly bloodless skin. His kekkai genkai must come with incredible healing abilities. "I see…so you're the girl that Lord Orochimaru spoke of." _Oh shit._ "Then instead of killing you, I believe that bringing you to him is in order."

I try to wrench myself free of the bones creeping along my body, boxing me in. "Like hell would I ever go with a man like him!"

My wings flare out, throwing him away from me, though also causing a rather unpleasant crunching sensation in them. I'm pretty sure that they're at least bruised, if not cracked.

As he gets back up, bones start to stick out of every part of his body. He looks like a porcupine with a bad haircut. "Let's put you to the test, shall we?" He races in, spinning around as he gets in close, forcing me back and back, until those bones make contact, nearly shredding my left wing. It feels like that time that Kabuto got at my wings, only much more violent and less thorough.

He swings the sword at me again, so I duck under his arm and aim a kick at the side of his ribs, only for the bones to expand again, two of them spearing me in the leg, the others catching my extended leg in a very uncomfortable position.

By twisting my leg around, he forces me to the ground, before driving that sword of his through my right shoulder, far too close to where my wings attach. I scream at the top of my lungs, my wings flaring out wildly and colliding with the hardened bones of his body, half of the bones in my wings cracking and snapping as my hands move in a pained flurry. "Wind Style: Raging Gust!" I flip over, squishing my poor, crushed wings, and driving the sword deeper into me, causing it to come out just below my collarbone. But, on the other hand, I do manage to hit Kimimaro with a wind style jutsu point blank, which hurls him about a hundred and fifty meters across the battlefield, driving him about five feet deep into the dirt. If it weren't for that kekkai genkai of his, I guarantee that that impact would have broken several bones.

Ignoring the pain to the best of my abilities, I get shakily to my feet and reach back, tearing the sword out and spilling my blood all over the ground. I can feel Suzaku's healing abilities kicking in, but it will be hours before these wounds are completely sealed up. No matter. I can still fight, no matter how much it hurts, and how much I want to scream.

Kimimaro is back on his feet and walking towards me, his arm now turned into something of a spear, with five prongs of bone circling it. _Just how many tricks does this guy have!?_ It would seem a lot, since the mark on his chest is growing, and his body, though weakened, according to him, seems unable to feel any pain.

I find out what other tricks he has when he puts on a sudden burst of speed, and tries to drive a punch right into my chest. Using my bare hands, I manage to deflect the blow, and I gather up chakra in my mouth as I ready another jutsu. This time, he gets fire to the face instead.

And in retaliation, He punches me right in the stomach with that five-pronged attack. He doesn't hit anything vital, but it seems like he's trying to bleed me into unconsciousness. "You're a sadistic prick, you know that!?" I'm not usually one for trash-talking, but this guy is really starting to piss me off. Mostly because I'm in pain. And it definitely doesn't help that I've used up a lot of chakra recharging the others. I haven't had a food pill either, so I kind of feel like I'm running on fumes.

"I simply do as I must to please Lord Orochimaru." He reaches into his other shoulder, taking out a second bone sword. Though really, I probably should have seen that coming. "Now, I will beat you within an inch of your life if I must, but you will be coming with me whether you like it or not."

"Oh really?" My body trembles slightly as blood soaks my clothes. "I'll die first."

"You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" He raises his sword once more, and in turn, I mimic the move.

The next few seconds are a blur of motion as I just let my body move despite the pain. It's a good thing, I suppose, that his movements are like a dance, because they become easier to keep up with each second. Well, at least for a little while.

We're at a bit of a standstill, at least for now. But I know full well that I've taken the most damage by far. "Your ability is pretty strong…no wonder you were recruited by that snake."

Kimimaro's eyes narrow. "Yes…my kekkai genkai freely controls my osteoblasts and osteoclasts."

"Allowing you to freely control the calcium in your body, and let you break down and create bones at your leisure. Right?" I've never heard of such a medically charged ability before, but I suppose that it's far from the most unbelievable bloodline trait I've ever heard of. "Cool stuff. No need for a lecture, though."

"I see…" He points his sword towards me, and I frown slightly, confused. _There's no way he can hit me from that distance._ Well, I'm not confused for long. Before I can even blink, he closes most of the distance, and we're dueling again, sword on swords.

And I lose as soon as the bone sword pierces my chest, an inch below my heart. Then, he withdraws the blade, and I stagger back, all of my chakra condensed into my palm as I run it over my injuries, coughing up blood the whole while.

My vision blurs for just a second, and my balance goes. _Damn it…lost too much blood…and I'm low on chakra too…_ I can feel Suzaku racing to heal me, but without the ability to channel his chakra properly, there's only so much he can do, especially with my wings in the condition they are, and my stamina almost completely drained.

Then, he raises the sword again, and my wings flutter around me protectively. He looks at them with distaste. "If you won't behave…then I will clip those wings of yours."

A jolt of fear shoots through me, but I continue to stare defiantly at him, even with blood pouring out of me. I should never have let him draw me into close combat. That was a fatal mistake. As the sword comes down, I close my eyes tightly. If he's going to cut off my wings before they have a chance to heal and retract, then I don't want to watch.

But for some reason…the next wave of pain and humiliation doesn't come. And when I open my eyes, I see sand swirling all around me, picking me up and moving me carefully but swiftly away from Kimimaro.

 _Wait…sand!?_

As it sets me down, Kimimaro frowns at the one behind me. "And who exactly are you?"

A gravelly voice speaks softly, but firmly behind me. "An ally of the Leaf Village, I am a shinobi of the Sand."

When I look up and over my shoulder, wincing at the pain the movement causes, I can't help but smile in relief. "Gaara…" He was hardly the backup I expected, in fact, I never expected any, but this can only be a good thing. Especially since it looks like he's on my team this time. "It's been a while."

His eyes travel over me, narrowing with each injury they find. "He did this to you…?"

I swallow painfully and nod. "Yes. I've been buying time for Naruto, but…I got drawn into a close-combat fight." I want to say that I'm fine, but that would be a lie. "Thanks for the rescue. I-" My words are cut off as I cough more blood out of my lungs. His sword must have pierced one of the lobes of my left lung. _Damn it…that would explain why it's getting harder to breathe._

 _Chick…I am doing what I can to heal you, but your body is incapable of channeling my power for much longer. It will injure you further if you do._

 _I see…_ So he's trying to balance between keeping me alive, and preventing further damage to my body. _Thank you…_

 _You are welcome, chick._ His voice disappears back into the recesses of my mind, along with most, but not all of his chakra, leaving the physical features, but not the strength.

Gaara's sand waves around me, obscuring the sight of me slightly from Kimimaro. "You are no longer in any condition to fight. Stay here and heal yourself."

I kind of wish that I could disobey that 'order', but I'm hardly in any physical condition to. "Alright…" But I have almost no chakra left for doing that, so there's only so much I can realistically do.

Gaara moves slightly, sidling around me and standing between me and the man who covered me in my own blood. It's a very…protective kind of gesture.

Kimimaro stretches out his body, bones growing once more from his chest and back. "Gaara…is that what they call you?" Something is happening to his fingers, and I don't like it. "Digital Shrapnel!" And the last thing I expect him to do is launch the bones of his fingertips at us. Which, of course, is exactly what he does.

Gaara's sand reacts in an instant, catching each little bone easily. He watches Kimimaro warily, but also with what appears to be boredom. "Impulsive, aren't you?" Then, he looks back at me. "You were…stronger, when last we met."

I smile painfully at him as I finish healing up my lung enough to speak without coughing up blood every other word. "The boys got their chakra drained, so I gave most of mine to them. I don't have much left. And like I said he drew me into close combat. I'm not a taijutsu type, I was at a disadvantage to begin with."

"I see…" It sounds to me like he disapproves of something, probably my recklessness. But to be fair, I wasn't trying to be reckless, I was just having issues with trying to buy Naruto enough time to go after Sasuke without having to worry about Kimimaro coming in from behind. And seeing as I managed to stall long enough for Gaara to get here, I'd say that my mission has been successful. "Temari and Kankuro are assisting the other members of your team."

"Really!?" That's good news, it means that they're still alive. "Good…" That's my one hope, that all of us will make it out of this alive. Though, considering how much blood I'm still losing, that might be a difficult feat to manage.

Reaching into my pack, I start bandaging up my wounds as Gaara and Kimimaro stare each other down. I suppose that's just the thing with the strong, silent type. They don't make a lot of conversation on the battlefield. Kimimaro was far more talkative with me.

Gaara glances at me as I tend my wounds. "Do not strain yourself, you are in no state to continue fighting. I will handle this."

That doesn't sit well with me, letting someone else fight my battle for me. But…he's got a point. I can't fight anymore. If I were a regular ninja, I wouldn't even be breathing right now. "Fine. But keep an eye on those bones, they're his kekkai genkai, and they're as strong as steel. He wields them like weapons and can create as many as he likes as long as he has the calcium for it in his body. He also can't seem to feel pain…"

Gaara simply nods, drawing Kimimaro's attention with his sand. "You're Gaara of the Desert. You wield sand, hence the name." For some reason, all of the protruding bones retract. But that's got to mean that Kimimaro has something up his sleeve, or arm, as it were. Luckily, Gaara isn't like me. He specializes in defense. Close combat isn't an issue with him unless you can overpower or outrun the sand. It's an advantage that I definitely don't have.

Wave after wave of finger bones are launched in our direction, and each and every time, they're stopped cold by the sand that rushes to Gaara's defense.

Kimimaro finally skids to a stop, eyeing Gaara flatly. "Gaara of the Desert, rather a foolish nickname, isn't it? You're nothing without that sand of yours!" Though Kimimaro seems to be seriously underestimating just how much Gaara can do with that sand.

For example, distracting him with an attack from above, while launching another attack from below. Gaara humors the earlier remark, though. "But as long as I have it, I can do anything. The only fool here is you. If I need more sand, I can easily use the earth we're standing on to make more." And as he says, more sand rises out of the ground, crushed stone and earth obeying his will. He definitely has the terrain advantage as he wraps Kimimaro in a layer of sand.

I stare at the pillar of sand suspiciously. "Is it done?"

"Almost…" Gaara frowns at it, squeezing his hand tightly. The sand mimics him, squeezing itself tightly, crushing everything inside. There's even blood soaking through the sand. "When I look at this guy, it reminds me of him…" I raise an eyebrow at that. "Uchiha…his eyes…Sasuke had the same eyes this guy does."

I seem to remember Gaara saying something like that during the preparations for the finals a few months ago. You…really like to look at people's eyes, don't you?" I smile wryly at the memories. "You really hated looking at mine, though."

Gaara looks at me sharply, before turning his attention back to the mound of sand in front of us. It doesn't take long to see why. His body ruined and patches of skin missing over a layer of protective bone, and black markings running up and down his skin, Kimimaro forces his way out of the mound of sand that should have crushed him into dust.

I blink at the sight, before shivering slightly. "As a medic, I find this to be highly disturbing."

Kimimaro looks up at us. "That sure was a lot of pressure. If I hadn't grown a membrane of bone underneath my skin, I would have been crushed beyond recognition."

"More bones…he's a monster…a freak." Despite his words, Gaara barely bats an eye. I snort in amusement at his assessment, though. "Do we really have room to talk?"

"…I suppose not." Gaara's sand curls around my ankles a little, not tightly, just…soothingly, almost.

"I underestimated you…" It looks really weird to be able to see half of Kimimaro's jaw as he talks. "But that's the last time I'll get caught in your sand."

In response, Gaara sinks into a solid stance, his hands working as he uses a jutsu that makes the ground shake beneath us. And he conjures up a huge wave of sand, using the earth that he ground up earlier in the battle. "Sand Tsunami!"

The sheer amount of sand eventually grabs and buries Kimimaro, despite his attempts to escape it. Gaara is turning the whole area into a desert. It's impressive, to say the least. "Did it work?"

"Not yet." He kneels down, slamming his palms into the ground. "Giant Sand Burial!" The ripples he sends through the sand shake the whole area. It's like an earthquake, really. _This has to kill him, right?_

But that's not what the confused look on Gaara's face says. "Why won't he give up?"

"Are you kidding me…?" I can't believe that anyone could survive under than much weight and pressure. "That's insane…" I'm not sure if it's a medical miracle, or a blasphemy against the sanctity of the human body. "Why do we always get the crazy opponents?"

Gaara's eyebrows furrow. "This battle is about to get worse."

"Worse? How could it possibly get any-" And I really wish I hadn't opened my big mouth because out of the sand comes a dark gray tail with bone studs protruding from it. "Okay…that's how it could get worse…"

The creature that appears to us is…definitely not human. Andas Gaara surrounds it with sand, it refuses to be crushed, no matter how much pressure he applies. Then, it comes charging straight at us. Gray skin, bones protruding from all sorts of places, bone studs in a powerful six foot long tail…it's like a creature straight out of a nightmare. Though the worst part has to be the speed. In this form, Kimimaro is so much faster than he used to be. It's almost…frightening.

Gaara's sand moves like lightning, trying to trap and encase Kimimaro's more bestial form. Unfortunately, every single attempt to catch him is dodged, and with a precision that Kimimaro didn't have before. Which is saying something, considering how precisely he managed to make to bleed.

As Kimimaro gets closer, Gaara raises a shield, only for the Sound Ninja to plow through it and send Gaara flying, before sniffing the air and turning towards me. "It seems that your protector is gone…leaving you helpless.

 _Helpless? Really? Oh…like hell that's going to fly._ It takes only an instant before flames spill from my mouth, lighting up the whole area around me and forcing Kimimaro back. As long as I can still breathe, I refuse to be called helpless.

I expect Kimimaro to come after me again, but his attention is distracted by something far behind me. So, I cautiously take a peek, and there Gaara is, his sand armor starting to come off. _Shit._

Kimimaro tilts his head slightly. "I see…an armor-like shell of sand." Then, he looks down. "I'm tired of that sand…" He crunches it underfoot as Gaara gets back on his feet, his armor once again intact. "Very well Gaara, you first."

Kimimaro's next move is where I draw the line. The guy pulls out his freaking spinal column this time. In response to that, the sand underneath me writhes and curls around me, making a platform that settles down well behind Gaara. He's effectively trying to remove me from the battle, despite the fact that Kimimaro still has an eye trained on me.

Still, when I look at the spine in his hand, I have to grimace. "That…is so wrong…"

"Clematis Dance." Kimimaro somehow stands up without his spine in his body. "First, the vine." He uses his spine like a whip, circling it around Gaara as the sand moves up to protect him. It traps Gaara in a layer of sand, surrounded and clamped shut by the flexible series of bones. "Then, the flower. This bone is my strongest. It will bore right through you, defenses and all."

And I have no freaking clue how he does it, but somehow, his bones grow and expand until they make what I can only call a giant drill around his left hand. Now, hanging around Naruto, I've seen a lot of strange shit, but this easily takes the cake.

In direct challenge to Kimimaro's statement, Gaara makes a giant golem-like shield out of sand. "Ultimate Defense: Shukaku's Shield!" Well, I can see why he would give it that name. It does rather remind me of that demon that tried to take over his body a few months ago. Luckily for everyone involved, Naruto head-butted it back to sleep.

In an attempt fueled by what I'm pretty sure is pride, Kimimaro goes ahead, trying to drill through the shield of sand, managing to dig deeply into it before the first cracks appear. It's a battle of wills, and Gaara is most determined to win. Proven, when Kimimaro's bone shatters, startling him. "It's…so strong."

Gaara stands there impassively. "I took the hardest minerals in the soil and ground them, then fused them with the sand, using my chakra." That explains why the bone spear shattered like that. "Tell me…that's a very unusual jutsu…it's a kekkai genkai, right?

"It belonged to the Kaguya, but now…it belongs to me, and me alone."That seems to be a far more common issue than people think…being the last of a bloodline clan.

Gaara doesn't even blink. "You're the last of your clan, eh?" And then, there's an unmistakable coldness in his eyes. "Then your clan perishes today."

Kimimaro also remains unfazed. It's actually rather amazing that these two can have such a calm, yet antagonistic conversation. "That might very well be the case. My body has weakened. It may not last much longer. However…I will still live on because I am not alone."

"You're not alone, you say?" Ah…loneliness versus companionship, thats a topic that Gaara knows well. And I have to say that I'm not a big fan of the topic either.

"That's right. My existence has subsumed into Lord Orochimaru's ambition." Okay, this guy is clearly working with more than a few screws loose. "I will live on in Lord Orochimaru's heart forever.

A flash of disgust crosses Gaara's face. "Orochimaru has brainwashed you well, you sad little pawn." And with that, the ground under Kimimaro's feet turns to sand, sucking him under the ground.

But it looks to me like Gaara is running out of chakra, so I limp over to Gaara, putting my hands on his shoulders to give him all of the chakra that I can without knocking myself unconscious. "Here…take it."

"Ciara…" He stiffens for a moment, before turning a slightly angry gaze on Kimimaro. "I will bury you two hundred meters below the surface of the earth, under pressures so great you won't be able to move a finger, imprisoned there until the end of time."

Kimimaro disappears underneath the sand, and I laugh a little bit. "You're very dramatic. I hope you realize that."

"Dance." _No way…that's impossible!_ "Bracken Dance."

But apparently it is possible, because a forest of bone spikes starts to emerge from the earth, each one nearly ten feet high. And as they come closer, I'm lifted into the air by Gaara's sand.

My breath catches in my throat as I look down at the enormous field of bone spikes. I've never seen anything like it before. "Gaara…"

Gaara floats over towards me on his own platform of sand, sweating a little, and breathing hard. "I…see why you had so much trouble with him."

"Yeah…" I hold my stomach gingerly with one hand, my shoulder with the other. "Tenacious doesn't even begin to describe this guy…"

Gaara simply nods in agreement. "A tenacious opponent indeed, but now it's over. We won't be seeing him again in this life." Then, he look like he's about to collapse. "My strength is gone, we must descend."

"Yeah…" I look over towards the distant bits of grass. "Maybe over-"

"I am not his pawn!" Kimimaro appears before me, his arm a drill once again. "He is the one, the only one who ever gave my life meaning!" He pulls his arm back and plunges it towards Gaara in a fit of rage. "But how could the likes of you ever understand it!?"

It has to be sheer dumb luck. The drill was only an inch from Gaara's face…and blood dripped from Kimimaro's lips. "He's dead." The words drop from my lips like stones into water. "He just…died…"

"Yes…" Gaara's sand quivers a little, before moving the two of us away from the dead ninja. After fighting it out so fiercely for so long, it's hard to believe that he would just…die like that.

The sand deposits us safely in the cover of the trees, and Gaara leans against the trunk of a particularly large tree, his gourd lying next to him, almost forgotten. "It was sheer luck. I should have been killed."

"And if I were anyone else, the injuries he gave me should have been fatal…" I look over at Gaara, smiling wryly, despite the pain of my many injuries. "I think lucky only just barely starts to cover it."

Gaara raises his head, eyes narrowing at the sight of me, at the sight of my blood soaking my clothes. "How badly are you injured?"

I laugh a little, and it hurts to do so. "Suzaku is healing my injuries…but honestly, I should have been dead before you arrived."

That has his nose scrunching up worriedly. "You require medical treatment." His eyes skirt over me. "Can you treat yourself?"

Smiling sadly, I shake my head. "I'm…out of chakra, and I can't safely channel any more. My wings won't go away until I have enough chakra to heal them. I…need to get back to the village and see Tsunade. She should be able to help me…" My eyelids start to droop and my balance disappears.

Seconds later, I find my head resting on Gaara's shoulder. "We will rest here a while, and then I will return you to the Leaf Village."

"Thank you…" I breathe a sigh of relief, pain still shooting through my wings as the bones very slowly start to realign themselves. "I…have food pills in my bag if you need one. I can't take one…it won't work for me…" I've already channeled far too much chakra to be healthy, and if I try to push my own stamina any further than I already have, exhaustion as a side-effect of the food pill will be the least of my worries.

Oh, how I wish I could take a painkiller…but they metabolize out of my system thanks to my not so little feathered friend. I would offer Gaara one, but I imagine that he has the same problem. Oh well…

I figure that I'm going to pass out from the pain and exhaustion soon enough, so I nudge Gaara and smile faintly. "So, what did you see in my eyes back then anyway…?

"Mm?" He shifts slightly under my weight. "In your eyes…?" He goes silent for several long moments. "I saw a fierce desire to protect…a light that refused to be extinguished…and a fire that I didn't understand."

That's…not what I expected. "Do you understand it now?" I'm not entirely sure what fire he's talking about, but I can have a pretty fiery personality at times, so there's a lot he could be talking about.

"I think…I'm starting to…" His voice fades out as everything goes black.


	69. Returning Home

**Yes, I'm finally doing one, a couple segments from Gaara's point of view. It's going to be hard (since Gaara is just a really hard character to figure out sometimes), but I'll do my best. And in the middle I'll do one from Shikamaru's point of view. And then it's going to end with Ciara's point of view two weeks later. So basically…it's going to jump around a fair bit. But it happens in chronological order, and that's the most important thing.**

 **It also gets a bit funny/crack-ish later, and I hope that you all enjoy some light-hearted humor after a bit of a heavier start to a chapter. It's short and sweet, and I hope you like it before things start to heat up a little more in the next chapter. Ad by heat up, I mean that Ciara makes a decision that maybe she shouldn't.**

* * *

Gaara's P.O.V.

After resting and recovering for an entire hour and a half after Ciara fell unconscious, I rummage through her medical kit, retrieving one of her food pills, the bottle labeled as such, and swallow it, waiting a few minutes for the effects to kick in. And I must admit that her food pills do have a rather large kick to them.

Though I do not like the look of blood soaking her clothes, even if it is difficult to tell through her scarlet short and royal blue sleeves. And her wings are bent at very odd angles that they were not the last time I saw her. And the hole straight through her shoulder is a great cause for concern.

Her hair was also much longer the last time I saw her. I thought that it would be rude to ask her about it, but perhaps I will ask her once she's recovered. It could be as much an accident as emotional upheaval. And in the case of the latter, she may need help. But, recover she will, once I return her to the Hidden Leaf. And then, I can relieve my curiosity.

With my chakra returned, it's an easy feat to wrap her carefully in sand. I make sure not to jostle her and further injure her. Delicate is not something I am used to, but for now, I will treat her as a fragile flower, even if she is nothing like that when healthy.

Once she is safely tucked away in a cocoon of sand, I pinpoint the direction of the Leaf and raise the sand underneath me into the air. Flying there will be the quickest way and ultimately use less chakra for the time it will save. I also deem it the safest way to travel, based on the severity of her condition. That was ultimately the deciding factor.

The next several hours are spent in the air, frequently checking on my charge and making sure that she has enough air getting to her, until my sand sweeps through the front doors of the Hidden Leaf's hospital.

"I need a medical team, immediately!" It's the loudest my voice has been in a long time, but it will suffice in this instance.

Well, if anything can be said for the medical staff here, it is that they're prompt, and easily summoned by a loud voice. Three medics approach me, looking mildly confused. "You asked for a medical team?"

"Yes." I look over to the cocoon of sand containing Ciara's unconscious form. "Her injuries are serious, she has lost a lot of blood, and her chakra is almost entirely depleted." I slowly unwrap her form, revealing her to the medics in the mercifully empty lobby.

Their eyes go wide upon seeing the extent of her injuries. "How did she get these injuries?"

"She was a member of the search team." That should tell them everything that they could possibly want to know. "I was the one who found her battle, and I took it over halfway through.

Looking rather stricken, they glance at each other uncertainly. "Conceal her again and bring her to one of the emergency rooms. We'll assess her full condition there."

I do as they ask, concealing her form and following them to one of their large emergency rooms, large enough for an entire team of medics to work on the most serious cases. And I watch very closely as they carefully transfer her onto a stretcher, being careful not to damage her wings as they settle her into the emergency room and close the door.

* * *

Shikamaru's P.O.V.

I can't believe how stupid I was. I made all the wrong decisions on this mission. I should have thought things through more before making a call. If I had, Chouji wouldn't be in the operating room, fighting for his life. Neji wouldn't be in critical condition. Kiba wouldn't be confined to bed for half a month. Naruto and Ciara wouldn't still be unaccounted for…

And all I can do is twiddle my thumbs, while trying not to move my broken finger. That's it. Everyone else on my team has been heavily injured, and I'll I've got to show for it is a broken finger, self-inflicted.

And waiting for news is driving me insane.

"No point in making yourself crazy, you know." Temari looks at me disparagingly from across the hallway. "Don't you remember your psychological training? With every mission comes sacrifice."

I know that I don't hit girls, but sometimes…this one makes me want to strangle her. "Training and reality are two different things. I thought I knew about missions. I thought I knew what it meant to be a shinobi. Now, after this mission, my first as a squad leader…only one thing's clear." And it's been haunting me since I first got the news about Neji and Chouji. "I'm just not cut out to be a shinobi."

Temari just stares at me. "Honestly, all you men with such fragile egos."

I shake my head and stand up, needing to do something, anything. "This mission…I thought that all I had to do was depend on everybody else." I scoff angrily at myself. "Some leader…I should have done more, but I didn't have the strength. It's all my fault."

"What, are you afraid you might get hurt?" Her eyes are cold and unsympathetic. And usually I wouldn't care, but she's seriously not helping.

So, I walk away.

"Shikamaru." Dad's voice comes from around the corner, stopping me in my tracks. "A girl disrespects you like that, and you just walk away?"

"You bet I do." Already, I'm on defense. "Standing around arguing's not my thing. That's something girls like to do."

"And what are you?" Dad raises an eyebrow. "Not a man, that's for sure. Far as I can see, you're nothing but a coward. You think if you quit, the missions will stop? Someone's gotta do it. Your comrades will be sent out again on other missions, with someone else leading them. They'll face the same risks, some of them might not make it, ones you might've saved if you'd been there to lead them. How're you going to feel then? You've got a chance to reflect on your mistakes and learn from them. Use your failures to make yourself a better leader." _You think I don't know all that!?_ "You won't help your friends by running away. Instead, you should be trying to make yourself stronger for their sake, so that the next mission goes perfectly, and everyone gets back safe. The choice is simple, you're either a leader or a coward. So, which are you!?"

Dad's always been one for tough love, but that…actually really hurt. I tried, I tried so hard to be a good leader, but I nearly got everyone killed. And if any of them wind up dead…

Then, I hear the door open, and Tsunade's voice rings out down the hall. "He's gonna be just fine. The extermination of cells caused by the pill's effects has been rested." I twitch at hearing the news. _Chouji is…going to be okay…_ She sighs. "I couldn't have done it without your help, Shikaku. The Nara Clan's sacred medicine guide is invaluable. The work that went into that manual…the years of research! Well, it's quite impressive to say the least." _It helped Chouji…that's what matters._

That's when Shizune comes racing down the hall. "Lady Tsunade!" And she has a smile on her face. "Neji Hyuuga is safe. His condition has stabilized." I start to shake, hearing that Neji is out of the woods too. "And there's more. I've just heard that Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki have returned and they've been examined. Naruto's injuries are serious, but not life-threatening. He's going to be okay."

That's almost everyone accounted for. Chouji is okay, Neji is okay, Kiba is okay, and Naruto is okay too. Tears slowly start to drip down my cheeks at the news.

Tsunade sighs. "Shikamaru, your mission was a failure." That much, I already knew. "But…everyone's alive, that's the most important thing."

"Indeed. Furthermore, Gaara has just arrived back from the field." Shizune's voice lowers a few decibels. "He's only lightly injured, but he brought Ciara back with him. Her injuries are extremely serious, mainly stab wounds and sword slashes to the torso and abdomen inflicted with a blade made of bone, according to Gaara's description of the enemy. She's also suffered major blood loss and chakra depletion, and she's unable to be given any food pills at the current time, according to Gaara's further explanations of the incident. Her body simply cannot handle channeling any more chakra at the present time."

Tsunade frowns. "Are there any other complications?"

"Yes. She is partially transformed, and is too injured for the transformation to recede, just like the last time. We have medics working on her wings, as Gaara insisted that they be the first part healed, as the transformation will then recede, and the rest of her body will begin healing again." Shizune's explanation is starting to veer into very strange territory. "And after reading the report of her injuries, I have to say that if it had been almost anyone else, they would have died from those injuries."

"I see…" Tsunade stands up and dusts herself off. "Very well, then I will go and attend to her. Make sure that the medics respect patient confidentiality. I assume that Gaara was careful about bringing her in."

"Yes, my Lady. And he is currently waiting outside of the second emergency room." Shizune bows quickly.

"Good, she'll probably be comatose for a couple of weeks, then, but when she wakes up, she'll be ready for discharge." Tsunade chuckles softly. "I think she'll be a wonderful patient. No fuss about staying in bed since she'll be unconscious the whole time."

I bite my lip slightly. "C-can I see her?"

Tsunade looks back at me and frowns. "Not yet. It's best to wait until she wakes up. The way she is right now…I don't know if she's ready to have anyone see it."

"I see…" Well, actually I don't, but I get that there are some things that people just want to keep secret for one reason or another.

 _I wonder if it has anything to do with that power she mentioned when she said that she was the weak link in the team…_

* * *

Gaara's P.O.V.

It has been over an hour since they took her inside the emergency room. So I sit, waiting for a report on her condition. I did bring her here, after all, and I expect to know how she is doing now that she's being treated properly.

The waiting is the most difficult part.

An hour and a half later, the Hokage exits the room and stops in front of me. "She's asleep, but she's stable. She'll likely be comatose for anywhere up to a couple of weeks while her body heals and chakra replenishes itself. But the transformation is receding, and her other injuries are slowly starting to mend themselves. She's out of the woods."

I breathe a silent sigh of relief to hear that news. "Good. And Naruto?"

"Treated, bandaged, and recovering. Both of them are going to need lots of rest, but in the end, they'll have the least mount of permanent damage of anyone who went on that mission." The Hokage smiles softly. "You can go see her for a few minutes, but then she'll need to be transferred to another room where she can be monitored until she wakes up."

"Thank you." Those words still feel a bit foreign on my tongue, but it's good to be able to feel thanks for something. And right now, that's for permission to see the girl I saved out there.

I enter the room quietly, my eyes flicking towards the medics in the corner. They barely pay me any attention as I approach her on the bed, and I watch as what's left of her wings slowly recede, along with the feathers sticking out of her hair, and the fading red marks on her forehead and cheeks. If her eyes were open, I would bet that they're fading from gold, orange, and red sunburst patterns back to solid forest green.

Her ability to recover quickly is not nearly as astounding as Naruto's, but it's impressive enough to say the least. Without really thinking about it, I allow my fingers to touch her cheek. But despite the contact, she doesn't stir in the slightest. It's disappointing, but I understand why. She's injured and needs time to heal.

Still, it would be nice to be able to say goodbye before we leave. My siblings and I are due to return to the Sand before the end of the week. This was not meant to be a long mission.

I look around the room, spotting a pen and paper on the desk in the corner where the scrolls are kept. That will do…

As I take up the pen and put it to paper, it occurs to me that I should probably allow myself to get accustomed to this. After all, I live days away by foot, and letters would be a much faster way to communicate with her and Naruto.

The trouble is, I'm not entirely sure what to write. So, I glance back at her, and slowly, a tiny smile curls my lips. _Well, I suppose that I have plenty of time to compose the letter._

With that in mind, I make the first few strokes.

* * *

Ciara's P.O.V.

I feel like I'm swimming through honey as I turn over. And then, of course, there's an annoying beeping helping to wake me up. I reach my hand over towards the alarm clock and try to hit the snooze button.

Only when the beeping starts going haywire do I remember that my alarm clock sounds nothing like that. My eyes shoot open, and instead of seeing my alarm clock on my bedside table, I see the heart monitor that I just smacked.

 _Great…now I'm attacking hospital equipment._

The door to the room open and a medic comes rushing in. "Miss, you're not well enough to be up yet!"

I wave the medic off and yawn. "I'm fine. I just woke up." I look down at myself to see…well, not a single scratch on me. Ever since Suzaku got sealed into me, it's been almost impossible to leave a scar on me. So, even though the last thing I remember is falling asleep on Gaara after that fight with Kimimaro, there's no evidence that I was ever in a fight at all.

Though speaking of Gaara… I look down into the hand that I didn't use to smack the crap out of the heart monitor, and find that there's a folded up piece of paper stuffed against my palm. _Huh…I wonder…_

I open up the paper, finding a letter written inside.

 _ **Ciara,**_

 _ **I'm sorry that I couldn't stay to see you wake up, but my siblings and I have been called back to the Sand Village. By the time I left, most of your major wounds were well on their way to being fully healed, so not being able to stay longer did not bother me too much.**_

 _ **Regardless, I wish you well, and hope that by the time you read this letter, you are fully recovered. I do urge you t use caution in the future, however, when it comes to picking your fights, as well as to maybe put some time into your taijutsu training. I would not want to see a repeat of this incident were you to cross another taijutsu master.**_

 _ **Incidentally, are you alright? I noticed that your hair was different to the last time I saw you. Was there an incident, or are you attempting to make some kind of 'fashion statement' as Temari says.**_

I can't help but snort with amusement at that part of the letter. The earlier parts were nice, and had good advice, but that last part was just funny. _Yes…because putting oil in your hair and then setting it on fire would make a great fashion statement. I guess I'll just tell him that it was an accident._

My eyes scan through the rest of the letter, which is mainly just questions about what I've been up to, mission, hospital shifts, training and the like. Though it does make me smile to know that Gaara wants to make an effort to connect through letters. He's been kinda MIA since the Chunin Exams, but I'm more than willing to start doing the pen-pal thing if that's what he wants.

And as I unhook myself from the machines and go to the front desk to discharge myself before going home, I'm already outlining the letter to Gaara in my head.

The first thing that I plan on putting in there is exactly what happened in the Land of Tea that ended with my hair getting burnt off. Yes…that should make for an exciting story to start a letter off with.

And putting pen to paper with that kind of purpose is a wonderful feeling.


	70. Hard Training

**Alright, time for some fun stuff. Meaning…the boys get to knock Ciara around a little. Oh, and Tenten gets the chance to smack her around a bit too. It's kind of crackish, but I've been wanting to put it in there for a while to stimulate bonding, get Ciara into some heavy duty training, and generally just screw with her. I like screwing with my OCs.**

 **Also…family tree stuff involved. I've held off on it this long because I felt like I didn't want to give away everything at once. But I've had this on the back burner for a while, and since it just kinda fits, I'm putting it in here.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Okay, I made sure to wait an appropriate amount of time after I recovered to do this. It's been two weeks since I got out of the hospital, and I'm back in tip top shape. Well, as much as I can be. But the point is that our search mission team is mostly recovered from what we all went through a month ago. And though we're still not pleased over having lost Sasuke to the enemy, we're moving past our failure, and getting on with life, our missions, and of course still chasing down leads once in a while.

For the most part, I'm stuck doing shifts at the hospital. And while it's not the most exciting job in the world, It does come with the perk of a regular schedule, until I get sent off on a mission. So, I've found a way to capitalize on that.

And capitalizing on it is precisely why in about thirty seconds, I'm about to get four very important people to meet me at my team's usual training ground.

Twenty seconds… _I wonder if they're going to come calmly or make an entrance…_

Fifteen seconds… _Are any of them still feeling pain from their fights? I wouldn't blame them for not showing up in that case._

Ten seconds… _I'm starting to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea…_

Five seconds… _No, forget that. I said I was gonna do this so I'm gonna do it!_

And into my line of sight walk Lee, Neji, Kiba, and Chouji, three of whom were with us on the mission, the other was the one whose surgery I helped with. Keeping all of that in mind, I'm hoping that they'll at least entertain my request.

As they spot me, Kiba waves lazily. "Hey Ciara, what's up? Why'd you call us all here?"

I snicker at his forwardness. "Straight to the point, huh, Kiba?"

He shrugs. "I don't like beating around the bush. So seriously, what's up? It's not like you to call out such a random group of us to the training grounds."

"Well…that's because it's not a random group." I look to each of them in turn. "What is one thing that all four of you have in common? Something that you're really good at…"

Kiba looks around and frowns. "Uh…we're all guys?"

"Huh? How can you be good at being a guy?" Chouji has a point there, though I wish he would stop snacking and focus.

Neji quietly assesses each person gathered here. "Well…if it's something we're each skilled in, then apart from you, it would be taijutsu. We're all taijutsu specialists."

I smirk knowingly. "And you got it in one, Neji. That's right, all four of your are specialists in taijutsu, hand to hand combat. You each have your own unique style, and I'd never ask you to divulge any of the secrets involved in your individual styles, but…" I heave a sigh. "My taijutsu, on a technical level, is perfectly fine. I graduated the academy with perfectly good marks in my taijutsu class. But in a practical situation…it's appalling. So…I figured that if anyone could help rectify the situation…it would be any of the four best taijutsu specialists in our age group."

"Whoa, wait, so you want us to teach you taijutsu?" Kiba looks like he's not quite sure that his head is on straight. "Did I get that right?"

"Yes." I bow respectfully to the four of them. "Please, I don't want to go into battle again and have a repeat of what happened a month ago. I got into a close combat fight with a taijutsu specialist, and nearly died. And I do not want to go through all that again. I know that my body is still tiny and weak, but I have to start somewhere. I'll do flexibility exercises with Neji, run laps with Lee, spar with Kiba, and even try to outrun Chouji. Please, I need help."

I wait in nervewracking silence as I wait for an answer. And surprisingly, Neji is the first to speak up. "Do you already do flexibility exercises or not?"

I look up, then nod my head. "I do yoga in the morning and in the evening, unless I'm running late for a last-minute mission."

He nods approvingly. "Show me how flexible you are, then."

I blink. "Oh, okay." I didn't expect him to want to test me right off the bat, but I suppose that's fine. "Alright, here I go!" I start with a dive roll cross the ground, pushing my palms to the ground as I lift my legs over my head, and then swing them down and around, contorting myself as I spin them in a circle, raising them back up and transitioning into an back handspring, into a back-flip, and then into a backwards roll that morphs into a bridge, after which I end up flat on my stomach, my elbows on the ground, hands propping up my head, and my feet dangling forwards far in front of my face. "Flexible enough as a start?"

Lee's eyes are almost popping out of his head. "That is amazing! Such youthful enthusiasm and control!"

"Uh…thanks?" I've heard him and his sensei screaming out youth once in a while, but this is the closest I've ever been to one of them while they were actually saying it. It's…kind of weird.

Neji, on the other hand, looks fairly satisfied. "I see that you have natural flexibility and trained flexibility." He frowns slightly. "Do you…happen to have any Hyuuga ancestry?"

"Yeah, my maternal grandmother, Hitomi Hyuga, why?" It's not as though I'm deliberately keeping it a secret from distant relatives, I just don't really talk about it. Especially after the old man died. He was the one who wanted to keep me a secret.

Now that gets those Byakugan eyes widening. "Hitomi Hyuga…married to a member of the Nara Clan, had two daughters and a son. One daughter married into the Sarutobi Clan, the other-"

"Into the Shiryugu Clan's main house. Shina Nara, she was my mother." Again, it's not like I keep it a big secret, it just…never really came up. I don't like to talk about my murdered family much.

Chouji suddenly stop snacking. "Wait, so you're related to Shikamaru?"

"Well, distantly, I guess." I shrug slightly. "That doesn't really matter right now, though. Me asking for your help in training has nothing to do with who I am or aren't related to." That quiets them down a bit, so I take a deep breath and clench my fists. "Anyway, I'm just looking for a yes or no answer."

Chouji frowns, then motions to me. "Mind if we do a group huddle for a sec?"

"Uh…sure?" I don't really get the point of that, but I suppose that I can humor them anyway. I step back and do my best not to listen to them as they talk in hushed voices for about three and a half minutes. They must be having some kind of debate in there, the pros and cons of training me or not.

Finally, after a whole five minutes, Lee grins at me, and the huddle breaks. Apparently the spandex lover is going to deliver the verdict. "Alright, so Neji and I have agreed to train you! Kiba and Chouji have agreed to spar with you!"

That…honestly confuses me. "So…you're saying that the two of you will teach me…and then I can practice by trying to beat up Kiba and Chouji?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Kiba pats me on the head, emphasizing how tiny I am in comparison. "There's just nothing that I can really teach you in terms of technique. Same with Chouji. Lee and Neji are the ones into martial arts. Chouji and I just like to smash stuff most of the time."

"Oh…I see." That makes a lot of sense. "In that case, thank you all in advance for your help."

"Now, let us get started!" Lee raises his fists into the air and jumps up and down excitedly. You wouldn't think that only a month ago, I was assisting in a surgery to take bone shards out of his back. But I suppose that it's impossible to accuse him of not having any energy. In fact, he probably has enough energy running through his body to power the entire village and then some. Of course, knowing what I do of Lee, I have a feeling that training with him is going to be hell on earth. That feeling is confirmed when he holds up a pair of ankle weights. "Now, put these on!"

This isn't quite what I agreed to, but I suppose that if it's supposed to help, that I might as well give it a try and see how it turns out. "Alright." I take the ankle weights from him, and they're a lot heavier than they look as I strap them around my ankles. I kick my feet back and tap my toes against the ground, testing out the way they feel. "Okay…this isn't so bad…"

Neji snickers, he actually snickers. At the sound, I half wonder is I'm going to get hit by lightning or something. "Those are Lee's first ankle weights, from when we first started training with Gai-Sensei." Then, he turns to Lee. "Rememeber, you're still taking it easy as well, so no laps around the village, and no more than twenty at a time. She still needs to build up her stamina." It sounds like they discussed this in their little huddle.

"Right!" Lee grins at me, already jogging in place. "Then come! Let us go for our first five laps around the training ground!"

I try not to wince at the expectation. This isn't the largest training ground, but it's by no means the smallest. Fiv laps is going to take a while, especially with these weights slowing me down. And I'm assuming that I can't use chakra to speed myself up either. It's just going to be me and my stamina versus Lee's enthusiasm.

Well, I guess this is what I signed up for. So, as Lee takes off at what I'm sure is considered a very slow pace for him, I jog off after him, the weights already having an effect on my stride. _Damn, I'm going to have to compensate for these before I can even get back up to my normal speed._

And looking at Lee's smiling face makes my stomach twist. _Well…no time like the present, I guess._

* * *

I'd gone out to meet them at ten in the morning, and by the time I go home at six for dinner, My whole body is aching something fierce.

First, it was Lee and his laps. And thankfully, he didn't push me to complete them at lightning speed. Though, surprisingly, his constant encouragement did actually help motivate me to move faster, even if it took me a whole lap to start getting used to the way that the ankle weights changed my gait. After that, it was just a matter of the laps tiring me out faster than they usually would have.

After the laps, they gave me a fifteen minute break before Neji demanded that I spar with Chouji and show him what I could do in a practical fight. Though I'm pretty sure that Chouji went easy on me, or he was just feeling lazy, because slow or not, I did manage to get him pinned down.

Kiba, not so much. Sparring with him ended with me flat on my stomach and my face in the dirt within two minutes. That was rather humiliating. Not to mention the fact that Akamaru joined in on the fun, and I got bitten a few times. Well, I suppose that they were nips more than anything else, because they barely drew blood.

Then, came the truly hellish part. I'd never known that Neji had so much stamina, let alone enough to throw attacks at me for a whole hour without stopping. But he did, and luckily, he didn't use any chakra in his attacks, since blocking off my chakra would be counterproductive. Still, every blow hurt like hell, and I'll probably have all the bruises for a couple of days, even with Suzaku healing me.

Unstrapping the ankle weights, I roll into bed and try not to groan. _And then, of course…Neji had to go and be a sadistic bastard…_ I swear, that guy must get off on causing pain. To assign me a full hour of that dodging training every day that he's not on mission, on top of joining Lee in parts of his recovery training, and wearing those ankle weights whenever I'm not in bed or showering… _This had better be effective, or I'm going to wring his neck._

And once my body stops throbbing like an old bruise that's gotten knocked again, I dutifully go about my hour of evening yoga.

* * *

If I thought that the first day was bad, the second day…just gets even worse. Because While Chouji and Kiba have to head off on missions, Neji smirks at me when I meet him and Lee at the training ground, ankle weights in place, as promised. Because today…he brought a friend.

Tenten.

I gulp nervously. "Hey Tenten…" She's a weapons specialist, so I have a feeling that I know what she's here for. "Nice morning…isn't it?"

"Yeah, great morning for some taijutsu and weapons training, isn't it?" She grins almost evilly at me. "So…A couple little birdies told me that you're getting into some pretty hardcore taijutsu training, building up your strength and stamina. And those little birdies asked me if I could help you with some agility training."

 _Oh shit…I'm definitely not going to survive this._ "And uh…what did you have in mind." As if I don't already know what agility training means when you're involving someone with an unhealthy love for weapons.

Predictably, she pulls out a whole horde of kunai, shuriken, sickles, even a couple of maces, and a host of other weapons that I don't even recognize. "I thought we'd see how well you can dodge all of these."

I glare over at Neji, who just stands there smirking at me. _Oh…you think this is so funny, don't you?_ But…again, I did ask him to help me with my taijutsu training, and if he's resorting to something like this, there's probably a reason other than sheer sadism for it. "Alright, fine, let's do this." I'm probably going to be bruised and bleeding by the time we're done, but if Neji thinks that's going to make me back down, he's wrong!

That's about the point at which Tenten starts hurling weapons at me. And with the ankle weights on my legs, it's not an easy thing to dodge all of the incoming attacks. But I push anyway, because ever weapon that I successfully dodge is another cut or bruise that I can avoid having to heal later.

She tosses weapons at me from all angles, some kunai cutting into my skin, and one mace hitting me hard in the back. I hiss in pain, but force myself to never cry out. If nothing else, at least Tenten will help me to develop an even higher tolerance for pain. Not that I really need much hep in that department.

When the dance session from hell is over, Neji steps up, giving me just fifteen minutes after the seemingly endless barrage of weapons to catch my breath, before he goes on the attack.

Last time, I managed to dodge about a quarter of the blows he sent my way. This time, I'm looking to increase that percentage. He sinks into a Gentle Fist stance, no chakra racing around to his fingertips, but the movements still primed and ready. "Are you ready, Ciara?"

My bod wants me to scream no, but my stubborn determination answers for me. "Yes."

Neji smirks. "Then let's begin." And he lunges at me, his first strike going for my shoulder. It's how he began last time, and I didn't manage to dodge it. This time, I manage to lean back enough to make it just graze me, instead of hitting me full on. His eyes widen slightly, before narrowing again. "Good, now do it again."

I do, I do it again and again, getting to the point where I can dodge about four blows in a row, before taking a couple of them to very unpleasant locations. I'm definitely going to have another layer of bruises to add to the first. Whoever named this style the Gentle Fist must have been on something, because it is most definitely not gentle.

Towards the end of the hour-long session, it starts to get just a tiny bit easier to anticipate Neji's movements. But though I can start to feel the rhythm and dodge some of the strikes, he's still far faster than I am, at least without my wind chakra in the mix. But that's the point, to train up my body without using ninjutsu to save myself. It hurts and its hard, but if Lee and Neji are any indication, then these kinds of methods eventually do start paying off.

Neji's last strike sends me careening across the ground, rolling over dirt and rocks as it slams into my stomach. Now that makes me groan loudly as I get up, my body shaking from the exertion of trying to dodge Neji's not so gentle strikes for an entire hour.

Seemingly satisfied for the moment, Neji backs off and lets me have a breather. At least, I thought it was a breather, until Lee grins at me. "Alright, now for six las around the training ground!"

"Six?" I frown up at him. "Don't you mean five?"

"No, I meant six!" He gives me a thumbs up, and a smile so bright that it should seriously be illegal. "Every day, we will run one more lap than the last! This is how we will build your stamina!"

 _Oh no…_ And here I am, still struggling to get used to the ankle weights. Still… "Okay, fine." I'm not backing out just because he's adding one more lap than yesterday. "Let's go!" _One more lap isn't going to kill me, right?_

* * *

A couple of hours, six laps, and a sparring session with Tenten later, and I'm starting to regret that assumption. The physical requirements on my body are brutal, and I nearly collapse when I make it to the hospital for my shift.

It's so bad that Tsunade, visiting the hospital for the day to do a training workshop, actually calls me into one of the examination rooms and sits me down. "Ciara, why do you look like you've been sucked up into a tornado and hurled through the woods?"

I shoot her a slightly dirty look for the description. "I was training."

"Training?" She raises an eyebrow at me. "Exactly what kind of training are you doing?"

Well, I suppose that it was going to come out sooner or later, it looks like it's sooner. "I was running laps with Lee, sparring with Tenten, and dodging Neji's Gentle Fist techniques, minus the chakra blocking."

Her eyebrow goes even higher. "That sounds an awful lot like taijutsu training. You're a medic…you don't need that kind of special training." But coming from her mouth, it sounds like a trick question.

So, I just answer it my way. "I may be a medic, but I function just as well, if not better as a combat ninja. When I go up against taijutsu specialists, I'm at a serious disadvantage. So, I asked Neji and Lee to hep me train. They got Tenten involved…and Kiba and Chouji have agreed to spar with me when they're around." I pull up my pant leg to reveal the eights there. "Lee even has me wearing these, says that once I can't feel these anymore, that he'll give me heavier ones."

"Ankle weights, huh?" Tsunade inspects them with her eyes. "Well, if you're trying to build stamina, which I've noted that you're lacking in, then you're on the right track. Just make sure that you can still tend to patients here, and there will be no problems with you training so intensely in taijutsu."

That kind of approval was…honestly more than I was hoping for. "Sure Grandma Tsunade."

Her eye twitches. "Would you stop calling me that!?"

"Mmm…no, it fits you. Naruto was right to call you that." I smile cheekily at her. "After all you're kinda like the cool badass grandma that people wish they could have."

"Oh yeah!?" She tries to grin, but her whole face twitches. "Well, just for that, I'm putting you on Emergency Room duty."

I'm not entirely sure if that's a promotion or a punishment. It sounds to me like she's trying to punish me, but honestly, the emergency room is way more exciting that just patrolling the hospital wards. Patrolling bores me half to death. "Okay."

She rolls her eyes at my easy acceptance of the assignment transfer. "Alright, now go." She dismisses me with a wave of her hand. But, as I move to leave, she tosses me a book. "Read that when you have some time. Can't have you slacking in your education."

Frowning slightly, I turn over the book to see that it's all about medical theory and chakra applications. Oh… "Sure, I'll have it all read by the end of the week." I should be able to read it while doing my morning and evening yoga.

"Good, then I'll have the next book line up for you on Monday." Tsunade smirks slightly. Slave driver… Then again,I suppose that term could be applied to anyone helping me with training right now.

By the time I'm done with my shift in the emergency room, all I want to do is go to bed.

But then Lee shows up to drag me off for evening training. And it's obvious that I'm going to be very sore and tired in the coming weeks.


	71. Trouble in the Land of Rivers

**Okay, so here comes the first of three short filler arcs. Just because things DO happen between the characters nearly getting themselves killed in the main storyline. There will probably be two chapters after this one to handle this little arc before moving on to the next, even smaller one, and then on to the last one before we start time-skipping.**

* * *

I should have known that there was a catch when Tsunade let me off my hospital shift today. It's bee a while since she decided to assign me an actual mission, but I'm not complaining.

I'm not even complaining about the new set of ankle weights that Lee gave me last week. In fact, for this second set, it's only taken me a third of the time to get used to them as the first set. I guess I should just be happy that Lee isn't making me wear the metal weights that he's taken a shine to over the last couple of weeks.

Still, as I stand before Tsunade, she looks stern. "I want you to head up a mission that sets out today. Naruto brought in some clients who are currently being treated at the hospital. I pulled you off your shift because I believe that you're the chunin who can best work with the people I have in mind for the mission."

"And who do you plan on sending?" I'm already switching into mission mode, my brain whirring and sprinting a mile a minute, already coming up with hypotheses and plans.

"Team Gai and Naruto. I've asked them to be here shortly to take on the mission." Her gaze falls to the door, as though expecting them to walk in any second.

Which, of course, isn't unreasonable, seeing as Naruto walks in, along with Lee, Neji, and Tenten. Naruto is more than a little surprised to see me. "Hey Ciara, what're you doing here?"

"Same thing as you." I cross my arms and smile. "I'm here for a mission."

"And now that you're all here, I'll get started with the mission details." Tsunade takes out a scroll, likely recording an interview with the clients. "Those men Naruto rescued are here to request our services. They came all the way from the Katabami Gold Mine, one of the most abundant mines in all the Land of Rivers."She unrolls the scroll a little more. "But about six months ago, a bunch of goons calling themselves the Kurosuki family showed up and ran the magistrate out of town. They've taken over their village, and are apparently killing people left and right.

"That is unforgivable!" Lee's outrage is a lot quieter than I expected, but that might just be because we're in the Hokage's office.

I narrow my eyes slightly. "So…then what kind of mission is this, exactly?"

"Once these men have regained their strength, your objective is to escort them back to the Katabami Mine, and take out this…Kurosuki family." Tsunade lets the last few words roll off her tongue with distaste. "A simple mission, really. They're probably just a pack of money-grubbing hoodlums."

"So then…escort, protection, and elimination mission." I've never been on a mission this tough before, at least, not on purpose. She nods, and I take a deep breath. "Okay…"

Naruto eyes Tsunade with an annoyed expression. "So then what am I doing here? It sounds like a chimp could do this mission."

Tsunade's expression darkens. "Who the heck do you think you are?"

Naruto's expression doesn't waver in the slightest. "Come on, Grandma, I got enough on my plate right now with training and looking for Sasuke-"

Tsunade cuts off Naruto's words by grabbing at him from across her desk. "You think you get to call the shots around here, pipsqueak!? You're a genin, you'll take whatever mission I give you! I'll send you back to the academy so fast your head'll spin!"

Okay, it looks like it's time for me to run some interference. I slide up behind Naruto and run my hand right through Tsunade's grip on Naruto's jacket, breaking it softly, and pulling Naruto back. "Okay, I think that's enough excitement for now." I shake my head and bop Naruto on the noggin. "Months ago, you would have killed for a mission like this. If nothing else, then at least consider beating up bad guys who are having fun murdering people a form of training, alright?" Then, I lean in close to his ear. "Plus, if we get out of the village, we might be able to hear something about Orochimaru's movements. We can do recon while we're out there." I know how much Naruto wants to find Sasuke, and honestly, I do too. But we've got nothing to go on right now.

Tsunade's eye twitches as she sits back down. "Well, at least someone can tame the untameable. As I told you earlier, I want you heading up this mission, Ciara."

"Of course." I turn to the others, my mission brain taking over. "Alright, let's meet at the village gates in an hour. Eat ahead of time or bring something that you can snack on while we move, we've got a long walk ahead of us. Arm yourselves in preparation for a large-scale battle."

"Yes!" Naruto is the only one who grumbles the response, but I release him in favor of head for the door.

Before losing sight of the team, I turn around and smile. "I'll get my kit ready and meet you all there. We can talk strategy on the road."

With some general nods of consent, I leave the office and head home to pack up my medical kit. I will not fail so terribly as a medical ninja this time, like I did the last time. We all almost died trying to get Sasuke back. And I'm not going to let that happen to anyone this time around.

* * *

The five of us meet up with our clients at the village gate, and I take charge immediately. "Alright, there's five of us and three client, a good ration for protecting them as we get close to the mine." I turn first to Neji. "I want you on the lookout for anything suspicious. You'll see it coming long before any of us do." Then, I focus on Tenten. "I want you ready to defend at a moment's notice, just in case the Kurosuki family decides to give us a proper welcome. Lee, you're on watching the clients closely. If something gets too close for your liking, you'll be in the best position to react, since you're the fastest." Then, I turn to my pouting best friend. "Naruto, you're on watching the client, but you're also on watching my back. If something happens, you and I are most likely to get drawn into the heart of the trouble. And if more than one of us gets drawn into a fight, I want the others to retreat back into a multidirectional defensive position. We don't know exactly what the enemy can do, so expect a potential attack from anywhere, including the sky and ground."

Neji nods. "A good plan. Is there anything else we should know?"

"Not that I can think of…unless someone has details they want to share. In which case, now is the time." I look around semi-expectantly, hoping that someone else has something to contribute.

Lee raises his hand. "There is a shop that is very close to that village. It can be our home base."

"Well, that's convenient." But I'll take it. "Alright, if the shopkeeper will allow it, then we can definitely make it into our home base. Anything else?"

Lee frowns, then nods. "Yes, actually. According to Gai-Sensei, the leader of the Kurosuki family, Raiga, is a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."

And that has me freezing in my tracks. "Another one?" _Weren't Zabuza and Kisame enough?_ "I swear, it's like we draw them like flies!" I really don't fancy going up against yet another of them, but it looks like it can't be helped. "In that case, be prepared to go into battle at any second. The ninja swordsmen are dangerous and unpredictable, and definitely do not show tendencies of acting as an actual unit. The two I've met so far were wild cards at best. So stay on your toes. If we tangle with this Raiga, remember that the Hidden Mist jutsu is a favorite for assassination, and to avoid it if at all possible. You can't see a thing in it. So Neji, if that jutsu gets cast, you'll know what to do."

"Right." I could swear that his eyes twitched at the semi-order.

"Alright, so unless there's something else we need to know, it's time to move out. These guys are killing people, which means that we're racing the clock." And I do not intend to let anyone die on my watch.

While they're all obviously tense as we set out, our guides, the three men that we are escorting back, lead the way towards the Land of Wind, between which and us lies the Land of Rivers. I've heard that it's a very pretty place, so I guess I'll finally get to see it firsthand.

About four hours into our journey, we take a break to eat and rest. Though while two of our charges are content to relax and eat slowly, one of them seems to be in a rush. And that makes me a little suspicious, and also rather worried. Because if anything, the man looks panicked.

Finally, one of his friends has enough of the behavior. "Calm down, Rokusuke. It's going to be okay, these shinobi are going to save our village."

But Rokusuke seems to just want to glare at Naruto, who is grinning and balancing on a tall pile of rocks. "Nothing like a bit of post-meal training!"

"I will not allow myself to lose!" Lee shoves down the rest of his food, before running over to where Naruto is getting himself some exercise, and starts pounding his fists into a rock, allowing Naruto to just make his precarious pile even higher.

Rokusuke, unlike the other two, is not amused. "How long do you ninja plan on resting here!? We nee to keep moving if we want to save Kanpachi!"

 _Kanpachi?_ I raise an eyebrow as the eldest of the three sighs. "Have you gone mad? Come on…you know how long he's been in that coffin. It's hard, but…"

Well, that's one way to kill an appetite. "Alright, I think we've stayed here long enough. If you're still hungry, you can eat on the road." Then, I turn around and resist the urge to knock Naruto off his pile of rocks. "Come on, you too. Let's go." Because the thought of sitting around and eating while people are dying from being buried alive makes me absolutely sick to my stomach.

* * *

We're back on the road for a couple of hours before the thick smell of curry wafts through the air toward us. Ad Lee…as soon as he gets a whiff of it, he stops lagging behind us so much and goes absolutely ballistic. "I was right! It is just up ahead! The Curry Shop of Life!" A weird name, but okay. Grandma Sancho!" Lee races on ahead as we continue at a moderate pace, though I can see him whirling around an old lady from here.

"So, uh…this is Lee's shop, then?" Tenten looks around, not entirely convinced that we have the right place. Or maybe she just doesn't think it's right for a home base.

Either way, we have a job to do. And then, our guides look up at a nearby mountain. "That mountain…is the Katabami Gold Mine."

I scrutinize the mountain through the trees before nodding. "Well, looks like we know what place we'll be laying siege to." When we're done here, I promise that the Kurosuki family won't have a clue what hit them. Because burying people alive and leaving them in the ground to die in unforgivable.

But rather than paying attention to the mountain, Lee beckons us inside the shop. So, since he's basically claimed this place as our home base, we follow him inside and sit down as the old lady, Sancho, gets us some water to drink.

Lee plays around with his spoon in the glass of water in front of him. "So, this one time a while ago, I was out here running a marathon with Gai-Sensei, and I was running for three days straight, fast asleep. Grandma Sancho's curry saved me back then."

"Huh?" Naruto raises an eyebrow. "You just mean it's good, though, right?"

"No, it honestly saved my life, I am in its debt." And for some reason, Lee sees nothing wrong with being indebted to food. "This was back in the days when I had just become a genin. Gai-Sensei had brought me out to these parts to introduce a new training regimen."

"Oh, that's right, I remember!" The old lady sighs. "That brings me back…the two of you had such energy, running like that, day after day. And then, goodness, the two of you were running while you slept. It was astounding." Then, she waves her spoon at Lee. "Then, you collapsed, and no matter what we did, you wouldn't wake. So, I added more spice to the curry I made. But you still wouldn't wake up. Then…Karashi, that boy…we threw half the kitchen into the pot in order to make that curry." She chuckles at the memory. "And goodness, you were a loud one when you woke."

Then, she comes over with plates of dark, bubbling curry on rice for us, and Lee smiles. "This is the Curry of Life!" And once we're all dished up and seated, Lee waves his hands around. "Now, Grandma Sancho went to all the trouble of making us this curry, so let us dig in!" He claps his hands together. "I cannot wait!" Everyone watches closely as Lee takes the first bite of his curry. And all seems well at first, until his eyes bulge and his face turns bright pink. "Delicious!" And though his face is crimson, he scarfs down every bit of the curry. "This is just so delectable! A myriad of flavors! The spices are blended to perfection! Plus, whatever these little hard chunks are, they're amazing!"

Shrugging, I take a bite of the curry. And I have to admit, damn that's volcanic. I can feel my face getting hot, but it's no matter, after all, I've had hotter in my mouth. Fire is one of my most powerful affinities, after all.

The entertainment, however, comes after I've swallowed several bites, and the rest of the table downs their first. It seems that having a fire affinity is good for tolerating spicy food, because the screams coming from my team and our clients…it's hilarious, to put it mildly.

"So good…" Lee pats his stomach before turning to the old lady. "Oh, by the way where is Karashi right now? Is he out?"

The old lady looks almost…sad. "Oh…well…the boy was very moved by your work ethic and began attacking life with quite a new vigor. So much so that he left the shop and set out for town. I shouldn't have pushed him so much…always telling him to be strong." She shakes a little more. "'I'm going to be a man' he said. 'Part of the Kurosuki family'." Then, she notices the agitation at the table. "Oh, please…you mustn't worry yourself, son, I'm not blaming you…"

Tenten manages to down a glass of water, her voice coming out raspy. "Too late now…"

Lee is shaking more that I've ever seen. "I am responsible for this…" Then, he looks across the table at me and raises his hand. "Ciara, request to incorporate the rescue of Karashi into our mission! We will bring him back from this road of evil he has taken!"

I put down my spoon and lace my fingers together. "Well we've been tasked with eliminating the Kurosuki family, but…I suppose that there's more than one way to do that. 'Rescuing' certain members would help in that regard." I push my nearly empty plate away and calmly down the glass of water before me. "We'll start here, using this as our base, and fan out into the surrounding area, scouting out the village and doing reconnaissance missions. Then we'll plan out our attack, bring down the Kurosuki family, rescue Karashi in the process, and set the village free from these thugs."

* * *

"This is terrible!" And I knew something was wrong the moment that two of our clients opened the door way too early in the morning. "Rokusuke, he's…he's…he's gone!"

Despite my best efforts, I lose a string of curses under my breath. "And…here we go. Obstacle number one."

"He must have gone into town alone, the blasted fool!"

Tenten's worry goes from zero to a hundred in an instant. "If those guys find him, then…"

"Alright, change of plans. It looks like we're taking the fight to the Kurosuki now!" I strap on my tanto and medical kit quickly. "Neji, I want your Byakugan trained on the enemy as soon as we find them. I'll have my thermal vision on, just in case. It's dark out, so we're going to need to catch them by surprise, otherwise we'll lose the advantage, if we even have one to begin with. We can't risk civilians getting caught up in it, so no lethal shots unless you have absolutely no choice. And Lee, if you spot Karashi, get him out of there quickly. We don't need him screwing anything up by being in the way when we're trying to rescue him instead of hurting him. Tenten and Naruto, you two can cover a wide area, so try and make a perimeter once we have contact. Understood?"

"Right!" Well, it's reassuring at least that I can make a coherent enough plan on the spot that everyone can agree on it. I don't know what I would have done if they started poking holes in the plan.

The five of us race out of the curry shop under the cover of darkness. Unfortunately, we haven't had the chance to scout out the land yet, which means that we're stuck running around until sunrise, when we finally find the entrance to the mine.

"That must be the place, huh?" Naruto looks down from his forward position. "The Katabami Gold Mine. You know…instead of just rescuing Rokusuke and Karashi, I say we finish off this Kurosuki gang once and for all."

"Well, that is part of the mission objectives, depending on how you look at it." I narrow my eyes as I look down at the activity surrounding the mine. "And we'll likely get drawn into battle, no matter how much we might try to avoid it. The best course of action is to go in, expecting to be drawn into a brawl at best, and a duel to the death at worst." My eyes scan the area, colors flooding my vision as my eyes change. "And as for the leader, if he really is a ninja swordsman, then it might very well be the latter. Let's hope that your sensei's information is wrong…"

Neji nods in agreement. "But first, I believe that we should investigate."

"Yeah…best to know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it." Though I'm not entirely sure that it's going to work out for us all that well. I've got that feeling in my gut, the one that predicts disaster.

We watch as the miners move in and out of the tunnels, bringing huge amounts of ore out for smelting. Of course, since it doesn't look all shiny, like gold usually does, Naruto is more than a little confused. "Is that stuff gold? It doesn't look like much…"

"The gold is just a part of the ore, it must be melted and refined, and the mercury and impurities removed." I had no idea that Le knew so much about rocks. Then again, maybe his name should have given me a clue.

Naruto groans. "Sounds like a lot of work."

"Don't worry, you don't have to understand it." Neji's snide remark is of no help, seriously.

I roll my eyes and huff. "Alright, ignore the rocks. The people is what we're interested in. We can have a lesson on mining later, after the mission is complete." Though what concerns me is when an old man falls down, likely weak from heatstroke and the backbreaking labor.

When the ones in cloaks, likely from the Kurosuki family, start beating and threatening the old man, Naruto's temper cracks. "Poor guy…ugh, okay that does it, now I'm mad!"

"Relax, Naruto, we need to finish our reconnaissance before we make a move." Neji seems to be trying to slide into position as second in command, which I don't actually mind. It's just that Naruto's temper is really hard to rein in when stuff like this happens.

"Great idea, let's jut sit here and watch them drive that old man into the ground." Naruto seethes, so I put a hand on his shoulder.

Since we need to try not to blow our cover too quickly, I glance over at Lee. "Go."

He nods and gets up. "Right, you just leave this to me." He disappears from out little base in the rocks, and goes down to the ground to make short work of the four thugs down there. When he's done, he waves up at us, calling us down.

So, the four of us head down quickly, and I land next to the old man, who looks more than a little scared. "Are you all crazy!? Dear heaven…what have you done?"

Naruto leans down to offer the man some water. "Here, you must be thirsty." But instead of accepting it, the man swats the canteen away. "Hey! What was that all about!?"

The man panics quickly. "You've got to do to me just what you did to them! Hurry! Hit me! Beat me! Knock me to the ground!" But when none of us move to comply with the odd request, he grows even more agitated. "If you won't do it, then I'll do it myself!" And he stars punching himself in the face, trying to injure himself.

"No, stop that!" Lee grabs onto his hands and stops the old man from further damaging himself

Naruto gets a bit skittish. "What the heck's wrong with you?"

"Don't you see!?" No, obviously we don't see, so I let the man continue. "If I'm not injured, they'll think I was behind it! And that means they'll give me a funeral!"

 _A funeral…? Is that what they call it when they bury people alive and leave them to die by suffocation underground?_

Then, a gong rings out three times. Naruto frowns. "That gong, what does it mean?"

"Is it some kind of alarm?" Tenten may think that, but I have a feeling it's worse than an alarm.

The old man looks terrified, and also…sad. "N-n-no…It's summoning everyone t-to a funeral…"

"A funeral?" Seems like Neji hasn't caught on yet, maybe the others just don't have quite the imagination or intuition I do.

"If any of us displeases Raiga, the leader of the clan, then as punishment, he arranges a funeral, in which the guilty person is buried alive." The old man trembles at the thought.

"He what!? Buries them alive!? That's the worst thing I've ever heard!" Tenten obviously needs to use her imagination more, because I can still think of worse. That's still pretty bad, though.

The old man nods. "Then, Raiga gets very sad. He bows his head and weeps over the coffin as if he's lost a dear friend."

"Sounds like we're dealing with a real nutjob." Naruto's definitely on the mark there. This guy obviously has a few screws loose. Then again, so did Kisame and Zabuza.

"I thought so…" I sigh and look up to where the gong's sound came from. "Well. I guess it's about time we crash a funeral. Whose is it?"

"I heard they caught Rokusuke this morning…it must be his." And that's the end of the line, right there.

I'm drawing the line now. "Alright. Our client is in danger and it's up to us to save him. It sounds like the Kurosuki will all be gathered in one place for this, so if we sneak up on them, and then hit them fast and hit them hard, we can turn the odds in our favor quickly. We can rescue Karashi and Rokusuke in the chaos, get them out of there, and then, once the underlings are dealt with, we go after Raiga." I turn towards the place where the strongest chakra signature is. "Once we see the situation up close, I'll give out more orders."

"Alright, let's go!" Naruto takes off running towards the gathering crowd, racing along and low to the ground to avoid being seen. Luckily for the two of us we're smaller than the others, so we're harder to see. Well, minus the glaring orange clothes that Naruto wears. But honestly, his blond hair is more of a sign than his orange clothes.

Once we're in position, Naruto growls. "Alright, whaddya say we save this guy?"

"Yes, let's go." I assess the situation quickly. "Like I said earlier, Naruto and Tenten, you're on perimeter. Keep them all in one area. Neji, Lee, you're good at disabling people quickly, you need to move in close. I'll go for the coffin, but I'll also be standing by with a trump card, just in case things go south."

"A trump card?" Lee looks at me questioningly. "What is it?"

I smirk smugly. "Remember that weekend that I said I couldn't train with you two because I was busy doing something else?"

"Yes…?" Neji's eyes feel like they're staring right into my soul. "Were you busy working on some kind of ninjutsu?"

"I guess you could say that." That was, after all, a very productive weekend with Akito. "I've said before that I've got a lot of elemental affinities…so that weekend…I was working on lightning. I've got a technique up my sleeve that should put a real kink in any plans they've got. But I'd rather keep it for later, if at all possible. It sucks up a fair bit of chakra. And Neji, check the coffin for me."

"Alright." The telltale signs of Neji's Byakugan appear on his face as he scans the coffin. "It's alright, he's still alive."

"Good." I grip my tanto to reassure myself. "Now, move in!" Naruto tosses the smoke bombs as the five of us race in and split up.

I race towards the coffin, my speed thankfully improved by all of the hard training with Lee and Neji over the last month. And in my hand are, similar to Neji's gentle fist, chakra scalpels, ready to seriously debilitate the two men who foolishly stand in my way.

They barely have time to yell before I slide across the ground and sever the tendons and ligaments in their knees and calves. They both fall to the ground, alive, but not going anywhere in the near future.

The rest of the footsoldiers are being taken care of in short order. So I work on trying to pry the lid off of the coffin. Ad it seems that Rokusuke can hear my attempts, because he starts banging on the lid. "Help! Please, someone get me out of here, it's stuck!"

"I know, just give me a second!" I slam the side of the lid with the end of my tanto, before thrusting the tip into the crack and prying the lid open like a pickle jar.

Rokusuke looks very relieved to be able to breathe fresh air again, and my team comes jogging over with one of these cultists, likely the one called Karashi. Though the one who was once in the box stares at me, looking a bit woozy. "It's you!"

"Yeah, we came to get you, kicked some butt doing it, too…" I look around at the many mounds. So many people…

"Forgive me…" Rokusuke looks unbelievably forlorn. "But when I thought of my friend buried alive, I had to try to help. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing."

"Of course not…" I look over to our team Hyuuga. "Neji…"

"On it." He activates his Byakugan, scanning the graveyard for any signs of life. He shakes his head, and my stomach feels like it's full of lead. Then, his attention focuses on something far away.

"Neji?" My eyes follow where his are going, and I can see…something up there.

Then, Neji recoils. "W-what is this I'm feeling…this sudden sense of danger?"

"What's wrong, Neji!?" Naruto runs over, his senses obviously on high alert, judging by the way he's bouncing on his heels. "What is it!?"

"We're being watched." He looks up the cliff, shaking just a little. "I think it's Raiga."

"Where?" Naruto's eyes jump around, trying to spot what Neji and I are looking at. "Where's Raiga?"

"On top of that cliff." Neji points directly at the hooded figure that just barely stays focused in my vision. _Jeez…of all the times to not have telescopic vision like Neji… I can only see so far damn it!_

"Well, I suppose that this means that we have the chance to put all of this to an end right here and now." I slide my tanto back into its sheath. "Come on."

I'm the first one sprinting towards the cliff, my eyes trained on where I last saw Raiga's form. At least, I'm pretty sure it's Raiga. I can feel chakra coming off him. Powerful chakra. _Wait…two of them?_

Not one chakra…two.


	72. A Roar of Thunder

**Okay, so this chapter is going to showcase a couple little things that she's been working on in her spare time between taijutsu training and working at the hospital. She has by no means mastered either of these things, but it's a start.**

* * *

The five of us scale the cliffs, reaching the top t find…no one. Neji frowns. "There's no one here."

"Are you sure about that?" Naruto isn't the only one uncertain, I'm not so sure that we're alone up here either.

That assumption is proven right when out of nowhere, mist starts surrounding us. _Here we go…the Hidden Mist jutsu, a signature weapon of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist._ "Watch out!"

Naruto looks around, confused. "What's goin' on?"

I look around, my eyes still slipping into thermal vision. "Naruto, do you remember when we went up against Zabuza, and he used that Hidden Mist justu to disappear completely? It was part of his silent killing technique."

"Oh yeah…" Naruto sinks down a little, and it pleases me to see his guard going up.

The mist slowly gets thicker and thicker, and Neji continues to peer through it. "And impenetrable mist."

Well, no so impenetrable when a dark, hooded figure appears right in front of us, laughing. "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

And all my suspicions are confirmed. "Then I take it that you are Raiga, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist…"

The man just laughs, before growing silent. I can see him still, his outline a bright red and orange, surrounded by the blues and purples of the cold, misty air.

Naruto growls. "Damn it, I just wish I could see something."

"Neji, try employing your Byakugan." Of course Lee would use that as a fallback in a situation like this.

"Don't you think I've been trying." Neji's apparent frustration betrays the fact that the all-powerful Byakugan…doesn't seem to be all that all-powerful. "It's no use, I can't see a thing."

Lee's eyes widen. "Incredible…so even the all-seeing Byakugan is blind in this mist? This jutsu is very powerful!"

"You really can't see anything?" Naruto's respect for Neji is leaking into his words. It's funny though, to think that he once hated Neji enough to beat him to a pulp over what he said and did to Hinata.

I can feel irritation rolling off Neji. "I've never heard of any jutsu stronger than the Byakugan."

Naruto hums for a moment, then tugs on my sleeve. "Hey, Ciara, can you see him?"

"Yeah, I've got him in my sights." My eyes are focused solely on the two closely packed heat signatures standing high above us in the mist. "Took you long enough to ask, though."

"What!?" Lee takes a step towards me. "How is it that you can see what Neji cannot?"

I can feel Neji staring at me, waiting for an answer, so I laugh quietly. "It's because I'm not looking for chakra, which can get all messed up by jutsu like this. I'm looking for heat signatures." I point up the cliff in front of us. "I see you, Raiga!"

I hear the man growl, and he raises his arms in the air, along with what looks like a couple of packages. "Behold! Ninja Art: Lightning Fang!" And from the looks of it, based on the heat and energy patterns…

"Huh!? Now what's going on!?" Naruto looks around, totally bewildered.

"Lightning Fang! Strike them down!" Raiga's voice booms across the cliffs, and then, high above us, there's a bolt of lightning coming down.

I work fast. "Lightning Style: Thunderclap!" The few unfamiliar hand signs slow me down a bit, but the lightning shoots out of my fingers, a basic lightning technique that Akito managed to drill into me over the course of two days flying into the air to meet the bolt of lightning. And when the two collide, they explode with a deafening boom, the shockwave slamming into us and hurling us towards the safety of some nearby bushes.

When I look at the crater left behind where we were once standing, I breathe a sigh of relief. _Jeez…if we had stayed there, we'd have been obliterated._

Neji takes the opportunity to use his Byakugan again, this time, with very different results. "There's no question this time. I can see them, a pair, fifty-two degrees to the south-west. Twelve degrees south-east, another three. Eight degrees to the south-east, one. And twenty-four degree to the north-west, eleven."

My eyes roam around, searching for whatever Neji is seeing, but seeing nothing.

"Well, then let's go!" Naruto springs out of the bushes, running through the mist before I can stop him, followed quickly by the other three.

"Damn it!" I sit tight, keeping my eyes peeled for Raiga, or for any sign of an attack. If nothing else, this should keep Raiga, and whoever he has with him, distracted while I conduct my search. But…it's coming up empty. The only heat signatures I can see are those of my team, and the two up on top of the cliff, now only small dots of red in my vision, while the residual lightning in the clouds above is a blinding white.

That's when I catch sight of the attack Raiga is generating and about to hurt towards my teammates. _Okay, I think it's time for that special technique you taught me!_

 _Yes chick._ Suzaku's voice flows gently through my mind. _Keep yourself centered and strong. You must hold your ground and remember who it is that you are…_

Right. I race out into the middle of the pseudo-battlefield, right into the middle of the oncoming lightning attack. "Four Dragons Secret Art: Dragon's Tempest!" It's a wind style technique, but a rather unique one. And I'm very glad that Suzaku knew how to teach it to me. I would never have figured it out on my own like the others.

The hurricane that explodes into being around me slams into the oncoming lightning attack, stopping all but the smallest traces of it from coming down the cliff. It also serves the purpose of clearing out the mist in a hundred foot radius, with me as the epicenter, the eye of the storm.

As the storm calms, I look back to see Naruto, Neji, Tenten, and Lee on the ground, little sparks of lightning jetting off their bodies. _Damn it, I stopped most of it, but…_ I must not have made the technique powerful enough. But at least they're breathing. If they'd been hit by the full force of that lightning,they wouldn't be.

As the storm dies down, I see Raiga coming down from the cliff. So, in an impulsive move, I fall to the ground, pretending to be unconscious. That way, maybe I'll have the chance to launch a sneak attack.

Raiga's voice echoes through the fog. "Warmed over corpses…we're strong, you an I. No…it's really you, Ranmaru,you're the strong one. And when I'm with you, your strength is mine."

"Wait." This time, is a much younger, softer voice. "They're not dead yet. They're just unconscious."

"Stubborn lot, aren't they? Alright then…if grilling em won't work, I'll just dice em up!" His threats make the younger voice, probably belonging to a kid, laugh. "I'll grind their flesh and bones into dust!"

I slide both my tanto out ready to flip over and run Raiga through, only for Lee to beat me to the punch and drive Raiga away from me and out of range of my shortswords.

"Ranmaru, are you alright!?" Raiga's demeanor turns rather panicked when faced with the possibility that this Ranmaru person might be injured. "Hang in there, Ranmaru! Ranmaru!"

Well, somehow, Lee is proving to be quite a match for Raiga, even though I'm about ninety-five percent sure that he's still unconscious. Still, that leaves me the opportunity to see to the others.

I check Naruto quickly, determining that he'll wake up pretty soon on his own. He usually doesn't really need me to tend to him anyway. So I move on to Neji and Tenten, both of whom might need some help in order to wake up.

As expected, I hear the sounds of Naruto waking up behind me, so I send a jolt of chakra straight into Neji's forehead. His eyes flash open, and after blinking once and focusing on me, he rolls over and gets to his feet. Then, I move on to Tenten, doing the same to her, only twice in order to wake her up.

She gets up rather groggily. "Is it morning already?"

"No, but there's a battle to be won, so for all intents and purposes, yes." Might as well make a joke while I've got the chance. I look over to where a bag has flown off of Raiga's back. And inside the bag is the other heat signature. And judging by the size… "There's a kid in that bag!"

Across this small plateau, Naruto is taking on Raiga, and doing a pretty good job of it, at least at first. By nw, he's just getting tossed around by lightning, not tat that's enough to keep him down for long.

Still, we've got a bag in front of us, and there's someone trapped inside. Perhaps willingly, by the sounds I hear earlier, but still. "Stand back you tao." I gesture to Neji and Tenten to back off a bit. "And keep an eye on Naruto just in case. He's having one of his adrenaline charged fights, so don't get in the way unless he needs help, alright?" I know Naruto…and if someone interferes when he doesn't need help, he'll take it as a slight to his skills, his resolve, and his ninja way as a whole. And hearing him complain about that is a headache that I just don't need.

So instead, I focus on the bag in front of me. And it seems I'm not the only one focused on the bag. Neji is as well. "There's someone in there…could it be…" He looks around as reddish dust is released into the air. "So this dust..it was hiding the chakra network then?" Then, his eyes widen. "And it's creating chakra networks as well!"

I snort amusedly at the situation. "Well, good thing I lock onto heat, rather than chakra. And the kid definitely isn't hypothermic." I can see him perfectly through the bag.

"Naruto! Use the shadow clone justu!" Neji's suggestion doesn't make a whole lot of sense, mostly in the timing. I mean, why now?

"But clones were useless before…" Naruto gets back on his feet after having been knocked down by another of Raiga's attacks.

Neji shakes his head. "Don't worry, his eyes are over here at the moment!"

I look to Neji quizzically. "What do you mean his eyes are here?"

Raiga basically answers it for me. "Ranmaru, I'll be right over as soon as I finish up here!"

He's been talking to Ranmaru most of this time, which means that they've been feeding information back and forth. And if Neji called Ranmaru Raiga's eyes, then… _I see…so Ranmaru is the one who has been guiding Raiga through the mist. The jutsu is a double-edged sword, but Ranmaru removes that weakness!_ "I see, so that's it…"

I watch as Naruto makes enough clones to make someones head spin, and as Raiga tries over and over to destroy as many of the clones as possible with his lightning attacks, before racing off with Naruto in hot pursuit.

Though it seems that lightning isn't all that Raiga can wield, because the next thing we know, as Naruto almost disappears from sight up the side of the cliff, Raiga is there tossing a bunch of boulders down the side. Logically, I would have waited until getting to the top of the cliff before having the boulders rain down, but to each his own, I suppose.

But as lights flash at the top of the cliff, Ranmaru's voice cries out. "Stop!"

The tell-tale sounds of a Rasengan resounds on top of the cliff, and the four of us look up to see Raiga flying through the air, thrown a great distance by Naruto's favorite new jutsu. I look over in satisfaction. "Well, I guess that takes care of that."

Naruto hops down the cliff and looks down at the bag between us. "So, Raiga's eyes are inside that thing? Those must be some pretty big eyeballs." And once again, Naruto shows his complete and utter lack of education concerning human anatomy. Well, I guess that's what I'm here for.

I groan and slam my palm to my forehead. "It was metaphorical, Naruto. There's a person in there, some kid apparently named Ranmaru. Raiga shouted his name during the fighting. He's why Raiga seemed to be able to see through the mist." Though, speaking of the mist, it was now nearly entirely dissipated. _I guess the death of the jutsu caster makes it go away. Good to know…_

Neji reaches down to the bag, unzipping it to reveal a young boy with indigo hair and red eyes. Lee leans down, his bushy eyebrows creasing. "So, wait a moment, when I was sleepwalking before…was it you I fought?"

"No, it wasn't, it was Raiga and I together." This Ranmaru kid really seems to have been a very solid unit with Raiga. They both seem rather focused on each other. "Always…every since he found me…under a blanket in a small room in my old village. He gave me a home…and in return, I've been his eyes and ears. And Raiga became my hands and feet. The outside world that we dashed into was filled with things that I saw and heard for the first time in my life. It was so much fun. Wherever and whenever I was with Raiga, nothing else mattered, we were never apart. We were trying to find the meaning in our lives by living for each other. And we were convinced we'd found the answer. That's why…if Raiga is gone, then I have no reason to live. Without him, I have no purpose in this world, no cause to exist. There's no need for me to be here any longer."

Naruto looks like he's going to be sick. Not violently so, just…like he wants to lie down and go to sleep and cry. His eyes are…haunted. And I have a feeling that it has something to do with the sidekick of a long since deceased ninja swordsman. He shakes his head. "Come on, don't be ridiculous, you can't talk like that."

"Go on." Ranmaru isn't putting up any kind of fight at all. It's…wrong, so very, very wrong. "My arms and legs are crippled. I'm powerless to resist you. You have a mission to carry out, don't you? Well hurry up and finish it."

I sigh, shaking my head disapprovingly and clicking my tongue. "Killing a kid has nothing to do with our mission. We're here to save the village by eliminating the Kurosuki family. The method of how we do that is up to us." I look to each other the others. "Without Raiga, the Kurosuki family has no real power. We've accomplished that much. All that's left is to subdue the rest."

"Okay, but…" Naruto looks down. "What do we do about him?"

Now that's a hard question. "We'll have to find a safe place for him, someone to take him in, raise him, care for him." The problem is, he's semi-suicidal without Raiga here to ground him. "For now, let's find a warm, dry place to restrain him so that he doesn't hurt himself. Then, we'll come back and collect him once we're done with the rest of the Kurosuki family."

"Alright." Neji looks around through the slight rain. "There, I see a shack on the other side of the cliffs. We can leave him there for the time being."

"Good." I leave it to Neji and Tenten to do that, since they're rather good with tying knots.

Once Ranmaru is safely restrained within the shack, I place a sealing tag over the crack in the door, just in case. The last thing we need is for him to see something that could trigger him. The poor kid has already been through more than enough. And we don't need him lashing out either. All of it is for his own good.

With only one thing left to do, I go to the edge of the cliff overlooking the mine. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Naruto cracks his knuckles. "Let's take care of these guys once and for all!"

"Then let's go!" I'm the first to go racing down the paths of the cliff, my sights set on the men below who still have to hear that their leader is now dead.

What we see is not quite what we expect, but Lee is fairly mellow about it. "It appears the villagers have come out to welcome us."

"Everyone doens there looks safe." Tenten's eyes still seem to be looking for something amiss, though.

Naruto grins. "Then I guess the Kurosuki family just ran away with their tails between their legs." He's…rather optimistic, in my opinion.

I look down there, then up at the sky, before turning my gaze back down. "Somehow…I get the feeling that it's not going to go quite so smoothly. For some reason…it just never does."

Naruto smacks me lightly on the shoulder. "Ah, it'll be fine!"

My eyes roam the cliffs, and then I spot the ambush. "I wouldn't be so sure about that…" I point out the men high up on the cliffs. "They're waiting for us."

"Seriously…?" Naruto looks rather put out at that. "Fine…" He puts his hands together, and five shadow clones appear. Four of them transform, making a perfect copy of our team. "Alright guys, go!"

We watch them from a distance as the clones approach the mine. And, as expected, the ambush is triggered, and a couple dozen round boulders are rolled down the hill, squishing the clones to bits. "Told you so…" Sometimes, I hate being right. "Alright, let's go now. Might as well get this party started."

The other smirks as we split up, creeping up on them and appearing right among them without anyone noticing. Naruto is the first to break our silence. "Hey, what're you lookin' for anyway?"

"What do you think we're looking for? Those stinking brats." This guy really isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Neji smirks. "Are you referring to us?"

Naruto laughs. "You crushed the wrong brats. Those were just our shadow clone and transformation jutsu."

"And now…we're taking you all out." I'm hanging out above them, my feet plastered to the cliff wall with chakra. "Though really, you guys are…dumber than academy kids."

Okay, so…when they move, I'm not entirely clear on what their 'Ninja Art: Black Tornado' is, but so far, all I see are a lot of sharp claws. Then, they start spinning, and it all makes sense.

I blink, rather bored by the antics. "Can I just…flatten them? I know that it's no fun for you guys, but…" I stare back up the cliff at the rest of the team. "Please?"

The two tornado things go after the second set of shadow clones, and I sigh. "Okay, well, that's a pain."

Naruto laughs. "Oh come on, let us have some fun first!"

"Fine…" So, I sit back and watch as they have their 'fun' in attacking the black tornadoes. Eventually, they disperse, and that's about when I've had enough of this 'fun'. "Okay, you guys better get out of the way, or you're gonna be target practice!"

Lucky for me, they're smart enough to know when to hit the deck. And when the wind blades come out, making a far more devastating whirlwind than these cheap knockoffs could, my team is safe and covered, while the Kurosuki family…are decidedly not. And thanks to their little ambush earlier, there are plenty of boulders to slam them against. Now that's fun.

The five of us do a little bit of clean up, restraining the mostly unconscious Kurosuki members so that they can't cause any more trouble when they wake up.

Now…there's only one person left to deal with here. And all eyes turn on Karashi as Naruto gets up in his face. "What were you thinking back there? Haven't you learned your lesson by now?"

"Well, Karashi? What do you have to say for yourself?" Rokusuke seems to be doing just fine, judging by how loud his voice is getting. It's good that all of this trauma hasn't sent him running for a hole to hide in.

"U-h it was just a joke! I didn't have any other choice. If I didn't do as they told me, I would have been killed by the Kurosukis." Karashi tries to defend himself, but all it gets him are insults and a few moderately alarming death threats.

Lee runs interference, bowing before the people. "Please, you should strike me instead until you are satisfied." He takes a deep breath. "At one time, Karashi was an innocent, kind-hearted young man. And I am partly responsible for him joining a gang of thugs like he did. It's because of my words that he came to think power is everything

"R-right, that's what it was." Karashi sure is eager to hop on the apology train that Lee is driving for him. "I knew it was wrong, but I had to do it anyway."

"Keep quiet Karashi!" Rokusuke really wants to tear into the guy, and I can't really blame him. After all, Karashi is even more of an idiot than Naruto can be sometimes.

Lee is still on the ground, bowing. "It is true, Karashi was naive. But even so, he has a rare ability to make life-saving curry! Please, let Karashi atone for his sins. Let him make curry!" I don't see what making curry has to do with atoning for sins, but I figure it's best to just let Lee handle it. "And also, if Karashi ever goes astray again, there will be consequences, I swear." He raises his fist, nearly punching Karashi right in the nose, just to make his point. "I will punish him with my two fists!"

"Hey, listen up!" Seems Rokusuke has changed his mind somewhat. "What does everybody think about letting Lee and Grandma Sancho handle this situation?"

While the villagers talk amongst themselves, coming to a consensus on the matter, Lee pulls Karashi to the ground in a respectful pose. Karashi looks sufficiently embarrassed by all of the bowing and the eyes on him, and honestly, I hop that he learns a valuable lesson from this.

But…the chances of him learning it on the first try aren't so great.

Naruto claps his hands together. "And with that, our mission is pretty much complete."

"Don't get ahead of yourself." I cross my arms and look back in the direction of the shack. "We still have one thing left to deal with before we can wrap up this mission and go home."

It doesn't take long for us to make our way back to the shack, and I rip the seal off the door, opening it up to reveal Ranmaru inside, in exactly the same position that we left him in.

I enter first and kneel down in front of the kid. "Hey, are you alright?"

He opens his eyes and look up at me. "What does it matter if I feel alright or not? I can't go on living alone like I am."

Naruto looks hurt by the words. "Hey, come on, don't say that."

"Why don't we just leave this weakling here?" Tenten's words make my fingers twitch. "Everyone oughta be able to live by themselves."

"But, don't you need some good friends in your life who you can count on in a pinch?" Naruto's face falls further, and it actually hurts to watch.

"I'm talking about the basics here! I can't stand weak, indecisive people!" Tenten's ignorance is showing, and it kind of pisses me off a little.

I look back at her, glaring slightly. "Humans are not made to live alone, not even just to get the basics. Being independent is one thing, being completely alone and isolated is another, and completely unnatural. Make sure that you don't mix the two up." And with that, I've effectively shut her up. I could swear that I actually hear the click of her jaw there.

Ranmaru lifts his head and looks at me. "Since the day I was born, I've always been frail. And for most of my life, a shabby cabin was my entire world. I have no memory of my parents. I survived…only because the villagers took pity on me and brought me small amounts of food from time to time. But…even as fragile as I was, I had a special power that no one else did. As time went on…everyone feared me. Because even without leaving my room, I could see what was happening outside. From then on, I had no more visitors bringing me food. All I could do was wait to die." His eyes glow slightly. "If it wasn't for Raiga, I wouldn't be alive."

Lee looks stricken by the story. "His past is so tragic…I had no idea."

Neji sighs. "Yes…I agree."

"Raiga took me out beyond those walls and showed me a world I'd never experienced before." There's a dangerous and growing listlessness in Ranmaru's eyes. "If Raiga isn't here to care for me, it's like losing my own body.

Neji's eyes look like they're dancing around facts, interpretations, and conclusions. "I think I see…Raiga was able to become one of the famous Seven Swordsmen because he was able to borrow power from Ranmaru."

"So the two of you helped each other to survive…didn't you?" Looks like Tenten is changing her tune. Good. I would be rather disappointed if she didn't.

When Ranmaru nods, Naruto loses it. "That's not true! Raiga was using you so he could do all those terrible things!"

"Yes…he might have been using me…it' possible." Ranmaru smiles anyway. "But, whether god or bad, either way it doesn't matter to me, I'm just a tool to sense things out, anyway." And that makes my heart seize up. It's a product of our world that some people see others as tools, and that eventually, those seen as tools begin to see themselves that way as well. And it makes me sick.

"Well, if that's what you believe, then you're not really alive, are ya?" _Oh boy…Naruto is flashing back to Haku again._ "Look, if you're gonna survive on your own, you're gonna have to give it your all! And you can start by eating the Curry of Life! It's sure to cheer ya up!"

And while the reactions to that declaration are varied, I just shake my head. "Maybe something milder for the kid. Not everyone has a habit of breathing fire. Anyway…" I undo the ropes around Ranmaru and help him onto Naruto's waiting back.

Naruto looks over his shoulder at the kid, grinning. "Until the day you can walk on your own, I'm gonna have to be your body for ya. Well?"

"…Alright, but I have one favor to ask." I raise an eyebrow at the kid, waiting. "I want to see…where Raiga's body is."

"I see…" I close my eyes, thinking about it for a few long moments. "Alright, I suppose there's no harm in it. We should probably go back there anyway and check it out, just to be certain that we're not going to be having any more problems."

Pushing the door of the shack open again, I walk outside and over towards the edge of the cliff that Naruto hurled Raiga over. And when I look down, the only things sticking out of the massive pile of rocks are Raiga's arms, still holding those two strange swords, the ones with fang-like protrusions on either side. _Well, I suppose that's why it's called Lightning Fang._

Neji does the duty of checking out Raiga's form with his Byakugan, taking several long seconds, just to be sure. "Nothing, I sense no life in Raiga."

I can sense…something, but from what I can tell, it's more of a residual aura clinging to the swords more than anything else. "I don't sense a life force coming from him either. I think we're good now."

Naruto hefts the kid higher. "Can you see down there, Ranmaru?"

"Yes." He peers over Naruto's shoulder, staring down at the remains of his former partner. I have to give the kid this much, it's astounding that he's not crying. Bad guy or not, I can see that Raiga was everything to little Ranmaru.

Well, we're done here, so there's no point in sticking around. "Let's collect Karashi and be on our way. It's time to head back to the shop, debrief, and then head home." After all, we've now taken care of all of our mission objectives. So there's no reason for us to stay any longer.

Which is precisely the reason why our return to the curry shop is far from a peaceful one. Naruto's excitement makes sure that our entrance is loud and boisterous.

And I try not to laugh as Karashi gets punished in a very…ironic way. He gets some of the spiciest curry the old lady has ever made. Serves the idiot right. Though that's not reason to inflict it on Ranmaru, Tenten, and Neji. Their constitutions are a bit more…on the delicate side when it comes to spicy stuff.

 _Well, at least the mission's done._

Right?


	73. Lightning Funeral

**I hope you're all ready for some more crack, because the end of the chapter is definitely a bunch of crack. I finished up this arc pretty fast, and I'm already starting the next one. With any luck, I'll be out of this section in a couple of days, and then I'll be starting on the timeskip.**

 **For now, enjoy some fighting...and then some teasing and chasing.**

* * *

The rest of our team takes it easy in the curry shop while Lee makes good on that promise of handling Karashi. He drags the poor guy out for the kind of training that he put me through over the last month. It was rough at first, but I got used to it easily enough.

Even helping to cut down trees to make a barrier around the curry shop goes well. The only disturbance in the sky are occasional flashes of lightning over the area. Still, it really seems like everything is calm now, like nothing else is going to go wrong.

…I should have known that thinking like that would jinx us.

When we find that Tenten, Karashi, and Ranmaru are gone from the shop, that's the first clue that something has gone seriously wrong.

The second is when Karashi suddenly comes racing back to the shop. "Come quick!" Those words never precede something good. "You'll never believe what happened. Oh, it was horrible, Mom!" He races over to his mother looking…almost scared, but not quite?

The old woman frowns. "Horrible? Karashi, what are you talking about?"

"It's Tenten! She-she-she…fell off a cliff!" There s so much wrong in that one seemingly frantic sentence that sets off a million alarm bells in my head, and I don't even know which one to start with.

"What!?" Naruto latches on immediately. "Whata re you talking about!?"

"We were both running, Tenten and I. Lee was still busy, so she told me I could train with her. But then, when we got to Lightning Pass, a bolt of lightning hit a tree and knocked it towards us, and then…Tenten fell off the cliff, all the way to the bottom!" It's quite the story he's telling. And yet…there's even more alarm bells going off now. It' like a cacophony of instincts.

"How awful…hurry back and help the poor girl!" Grandma Sancho, the sweet old lady, really buys the story.

"Alright! Tenten needs our help!" Lee's ready to go, and so is Naruto.

Thankfully, it looks like I'm not the only person on the team who thinks that something stinks here. Neji is being awfully quiet for someone whose teammate allegedly just fell off a cliff. If I had been the only one uneasy about this, I might just have started questioning my sanity.

Then, Karashi turns to us, a rather guilty and sheepish expression on his face. "Uh…go on, I-I'm gonna go grab the first aid kit. I'll be right behind you, I promise." _Yeah…right behind us, doing what exactly?_

"Fine…" I watch him suspiciously. _Now…what kind of trap are you setting us up for?_ After all, he did it once before with the other Kurosuki members and those boulders back at the mine. It's only been a day, so I wouldn't put it past him to not have changed his ways just yet. Well, either way, we need to go find Tenten. "Alright boys, let's go!"

The four of us race away from the curry shop, heading straight for the cliffs. Neji races by my side. "Would lightning and a tree really be enough to send Tenten over a cliff?" He's more than a little skeptical, and I don't blame him.

I snort and shake my head. "No way, she's too tough to go down from something like that. If anything, she would just slice the tree up with her army of weapons." I may not know her particularly well, even after the last month, but I definitely know that much. "So…that begs the question. What kind of trap is Karashi sending us into?"

"I guess Karashi's training didn't stick…" Neji's right on that point.

Lee groans slightly. "That is my fault. But…perhaps someone is threatening him."

"What!? Why? We already beat the Kurosuki family." Naruto's face twists up, probably at the thought of blackmail. He never did like seeing people being threatened, even just in theory.

"Well…we were once fooled into thinking that Zabuza was dead…" I let that thought hang in the air for Naruto.

He grits his teeth, growling loudly. "It's him."

"Raiga." I nod my head. "Looks like he's harder to get rid of than we thought. Which means that we're heading straight into a trap. He might have Tenten, he might not. But…"

"We can't just leave him like that!" I can see NAruto's hands twitching, as though he's planning on firing off another Rasengan. "This time, we pulverize him."

"Yes…" I take a deep breath and look on ahead. "This time, we make sure that he's dead." And if it becomes necessary, I will make sure that there's not even a trace of his body left. Which is a slightly terrifying thought, seeing as I've never actually killed anyone. "Now, we go into this expecting multi-directional combat with lightning hitting us everywhere! So split up, but keep an eye on each other's backs, alright!?"

"Right!" Naruto bounces ahead of me, and once again, I realize that I'm left as the only long-range fighter present. In fact…now that I think on it, I'm one of the few long-range fighters in our whole age group. Shino has his bugs, Tenten has her weapons that she can throw, and Ino has her mind-transfer abilities, as well as Shikamaru and his shadows. But apart from that, the vast majority of the combat seems to be at close-range, with some mid-range fighters. _Jeez, we're so unbalanced that it's not even funny._

With that in mind, the three boys charge in, leaving me at the tree line to provide backup and long-range support. Problem is, the lightning coming down is a lot stronger this time around, and I don't know if the boys could survive getting hit with those lightning bolts. That's why I'm rather grateful when Lee nudges Naruto out of the way of a particularly violent bolt in mid-air.

Hell, I don't know if I would survive getting hit with one. And what's worst is that thunderstorm overhead. With his lightning abilities, his range is increase…well, far beyond the range at which the three of us can attack.

Raiga rains lightning bolts down on the boys, and with the sheer number of them, it's impossible for me to get close as Naruto moves in. So, I improvise. My specialty is long-range combat, after all, so it's little trouble for me to shoot out wind blades to smash aside the lightning bolts, thereby providing Naruto with some cover while he moves in close with his shadow clones. I'm by no means successful in protecting every single one of them but the distractions allow Neji to move in close as well.

The problem is, I can't stop Raiga from electrocuting them at point blank range.

Now, Lee is the only one left standing who can get in close, though that doesn't stop me from halving the distance, watching in amusement as Lee reaches down to take off his own ankle weights. Weights that I'm forever thankful have not been put on me yet. Those things must each weight twice as much as I do. I wouldn't be able to move an inch with those on my legs.

Though the fact that he's taking them off means that he's serious about this. The only other time I've seen him take them off was when he fought Gaara during the Chunin Exams.

Looks like Lee really is faster than lightning. He's outrunning every bolt that Raiga throws at him. Well, except for one. And it's at that moment that I race in, grabbing Naruto and Neji, and getting some distance from Raiga. I find a pulse, they're both alive. And despite getting hit with a powerful bolt of lightning, Lee is still kicking over there as well. Barely. _Looks like he's going to need a little recovery time. Alright…in that case, I'll make sure he gets plenty!_

My hands come together, and wind swirls around me. "You really just don't know how to stay dead, do you?" I get a little distance from Naruto and Neji, just in case Raiga is as impulsive as I think he is.

"It doesn't matter, since you'll be dead soon enough!" His swords flash through the air, and I narrowly dodge a couple of streams of lightning. _Well, definitely as impulsive as I thought._ If I hadn't been expecting that, he might actually have hurt me.

Thankfully, it's not raining, at least not yet, which means that I can do this without having it go out right in the middle. "Fire Style: Meteor Shower!" And the fiery projectiles go flying, all thirty of them, straight at Raiga.

Balls of lightning fly from his swords, just like the day before. But I've seen those before, and it's no matter to leap into the air, twisting and turning as I dodge them, before hurling a flurry of wind blades right back down at him, gouging deep marks into the cliffs below as he scrambles to escape them.

He bellows at me as I touch back down. "You brat! There will be no funeral for you! I'll incinerate you where you stand!" Again with this guy and funerals. I mean, you'd think that at some point he's give it up, but apparently not…

That, however, doesn't work out as well as he'd planned, because I've got a lightning affinity too, and luckily for me, it's way stronger than the one I have for water. Because when a few of the smaller balls hit me, it just feels like a mild shock, rather than having the ability to drive me to my knees.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of Lee getting back to his feet. And in that instant, Raiga laughs. "Time to send you off."

There's a flash above me, and I look up just in time to see something that I definitely can't dodge, not even with all of the training I've done with Neji and Tenten. Three bolts of lightning come crashing down on my head. It's insane, more than overkill. And Raiga just laughs as they slam into me from all directions.

Chakra floods my system as the lightning tosses me back fifty feet, rolling me over some very rough and rocky terrain.

"Huh…that was supposed to vaporize you." I raise my head to see Raiga lifting his swords one more time. "But now, it's time for you to die!"

I don't care what anyone else says. Lee has the best timing ever. I drop my head to the ground, my extremities twitching from the amount of lightning coursing through my body. _It's up to you, Lee…kick his ass._

As I fight the lightning coursing through me…I'm half sure that it somehow fried my brain. After Lee gets thrown off the cliff by a tornado made of a lightning dragon, Ranmaru appears, approaching Raiga like it's nothing. I guess what he said about being frail was a half truth, because he's at least strong enough to walk.

What makes even less sense, though, is when Ranmaru surrounds the both of them in fog. At least, I think it's Ranmaru doing it. None of my team can pull that off, and seeing as it's localized, rather than spread out, I don't see the point of Raiga using it. So by process of eliminations…

And then, the most alarming part about it is how Ranmaru seems to be directing Raiga…off the edge of a cliff? Okay, now I don't really feel attached to the kid, though I'll admit that his story was a sad one. But still, knowing that he can see through that fog…and knowing that he's got to be leading Raiga off in that direction deliberately…well, that's pretty messed up in my mind.

His attempt, however, fails at the last moment, thanks to Lee's interference. "What's yer problem, you jerk!?" Lee's voice sounds…distinctly unsteady, and rather warbly too. Then I see him, and his movements match the unsteady, warbling feeling I got from his voice. _What, is he drunk or something?_ "Here I goooooooo!" He stumbles forward, proceeding to use a kind of taijutsu that I've never seen before.

My best assessment of his movements is that he's dancing around like a drunken taijutsu master who had a few too many dates with a professional acrobat. Especially hen the idiot accidentally kicks Ranmaru right off Raiga's shoulder and over the edge of the cliff.

"Ninja Art: Thunder Armor!" Those words send a chill down my spine as Raiga turns himself into a glowing beacon, racing in to clash futilely with Lee. I don't know how, but Lee's destructive power is significant, despite his balance leaving everything to be desired.

Lee stays down, while Raiga gets back on his feet, looking rather the worse for wear. "So that I always remember how hard you fought here…I'll take care of your funeral!" Again with the funerals as he points his blades at Lee.

"Not so fast!" Naruto comes flipping and spinning in, Ranmaru safely on his back, as he puts himself between Raiga and Lee.

Surprisingly, Ranmaru jumps in front of Lee's prone form and holds out his arms protectively. "I brought you the Curry of Life. I want you to try it." Ranmaru speaks to a rather bewildered Raiga. "If you do, you'll understand you're not alone. Its spices blend together like the feelings of all mankind." I blink, not quite believing what I'm seeing. "We've hurt too many people, it needs to stop!" Okay, now that sounds more like talking your opponent down than the curry stuff. I mean, seriously, who gives a pep talk about curry?

"No! That's enough!" And…the psychopath is getting loud again. " You've always been my eyes and ears! If you keep spouting this selfish nonsense, we can no longer be as one!" Which is probably a good thing, seeing as their relationship is extremely unhealthy.

"Strike me with your lightning, then." Ranmaru closes his eyes, surprisingly firm in his resolve. "If I die, the mighty Raiga falls as well, for we will always be as one."

"Ranmaru…I won't be able to remember the way you were anymore." Raiga raises his swords into the air. "I have to give you a funeral!" Lightning comes crashing down, enveloping Raiga.

"Raiga, stop it right now!" Naruto races ahead, making over a hundred of his clones.

"You little snot! It doesn't make a difference how many of you there are!" Raiga's words have me getting to my feet, despite the pain in every nerve. _You wanna bet, bozo?_

The growling is back, and honestly, I'm surprised that Naruto isn't going all red-eyed over this. "This kid risked his life for you, and you'd kill him by your own hand!?"

"Ranmaru betrayed me." And now the psycho sounds almost sad. "He broke his promise to stay by my side forever.

"That's because he doesn't want to be by himself anymore! Ranmaru has people who care about him now! He knows he's better off laughing with the rest of the world than crying with you!" _Jeez, where does Naruto come up with this stuff? I swear, he's got a different speech lined up for every bad guy._

I laugh and shake my head. "Well, at least you ninja swordsmen are good for one thing. You bring out Naruto's eloquent side." The laughing hurts a little, but I ignore it. "I seem to remember Zabuza getting a speech too."

"You little pest! I thought I killed you!" Raiga turns some of that lightning on me, missing in his rage as I dart away through the clones, skidding to a stop by Naruto's side.

I glance at Ranmaru, before looking back to Raiga. "I've got Lee and the kid. Go!"

"Hey!" The lightning flares brighter, and now, Raiga seriously looks pissed. "I've heard just about enough of your shit, you little pipsqueak. Don't underestimate me…you stand before Raiga Kurosuki of the Mist, once counted as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. I don't take orders from the likes of you!"

"Oh yeah, that's right, I almost totally forgot. A long time ago, you were one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen." And…Naruto's mind is right back to trying to track down a lead on Sasuke, rather than focusing on the problem at hand. "You never did answer my question before…Kisame, you know him, don't you?"

"Kisame…I can't stand that lowlife…" Raiga's cloak of lightning dissipates quickly. "Next time I see him, he's getting a funeral for sure. I despise him, I hate all the Seven Ninja Swordsmen." He puts the swords down, and they hang rather limply by his sides. "Ranmaru…is the only one who's been a friend to me in this life. But…you don't need me now. You've made other friends." Then, a switch flips and lightning comes crashing back down. "Damn you, you wretch! Who was it that taught you about the outside world to begin with!?" He slashes the swords down, making long trails of lightning that cut through the ground. "A funeral it is!"

Naruto's clones start to bite it, so I grab Lee and Ranmaru, leaping far above the lightning cracking apart the ground. "Naruto! Be careful down there!"

"Yeah!" He and four of his remaining clones spring into action, going full on taijutsu style with Raiga, kicking him over the edge of the cliff.

What I don't expect is the booming voice. "Come lightning! Give me a funeral worth remembering!"

 _No way…he's not going to-_ Lightning comes crashing down from the sky, huge bursts of it racing down past the cliff. Hurriedly, I cover Ranmaru's eyes, not wanting him to see…that. _That's…a very spectacular way to commit suicide…_ Then, it all just disappears, leaving nothing left to even hit the ground.

Still, I wrap my arms around the kid. "I'm sorry that you saw any of that…I know that he meant a lot to you."

"It's okay…" He sighs and wobbles a little. "It's…over."

"Yeah, it is." And now…our mission is complete. Raiga took himself out. That's more than we could possibly have asked for.

Now, I'll have to spend the next week convincing Naruto that he's not the one who took out Raiga.

* * *

"Well…that was quite a mission." I look back at the others as we make our way back towards the Leaf. "And if we've learned anything, it's that Neji can't handle spicy food for shit. And that you have to drag Lee away from curry by force." Honestly, he puts Naruto's love for ramen to shame.

Neji glares at me, his eye twitching. "I can handle normal levels of spice just fine. What was served to us was downright volcanic."

I chuckle at his indignation. "And yet, I downed it with no problem."

"Yes…well, you're not normal." Neji gripes back at me, and by his body language, I would say that he's about a half dozen exchanges from throwing away his composure and rolling around in the dirt with me.

"Is that so?" I turn around, walking backwards down the path as we near home. "And here I thought you were a genius. Are you saying that you're just normal?"

Another twitch. "Intelligence has nothing to do with your ability to consume inedible foods. Even Naruto doesn't eat the way you do."

"Naruto has a ramen fetish, that's hardly the same as being able to tolerate high spice levels." Then, I smirk. "And what are you doing bringing Naruto into this? What about your pride?"

Okay, now Neji's hands are twitching as well. Maybe it won't take quite as many exchanges to piss him off. Oh…payback for all those hits during training is sweet. "What I am saying is that your ability to tolerate the intolerable is impressive."

I smirk at him. "Is that a compliment? It must be. Though I suppose you'd know, considering what I tolerate from you and Lee whenever you're not on a mission. You two put me through hell for hours. I can barely feel my limbs by the time we're done." Shrugging, my eyes sparkle at Neji's still rather indignant expression. "You should give compliments more often, people might find you more approachable."

Neji's Byakugan stares through me, and I know that I've gotten him sufficiently riled up. "With all due respect, Captain, I suggest that you stop talking."

"Oh? Why? Is something bothering you?" The words are barely out of my mouth when I'm forced to dodge a blow to the shoulder. "Oh, is it training time already? I guess we start with laps, then!" I take off running, the restrictions of the ankle weights not slowing me down in the slightest. _Guess it's about time to ask Lee for a heavier set, then._

I cackle happily all the way back to the village, with a rather irate Hyuga on my tail.


	74. The Grand Treasure Hunt

**Well, I hadn't been planning on this, but it looks like I'll get a whole mini-arc squeezed into a single chapter. I don't think I've ever managed that before.**

 **Also, I didn't mean for it to happen, but there's a lot of Ciara and Neji interaction in this chapter. I totally didn't mean for it to happen, it just…fit like that.**

* * *

It seems like there's a lot of excitement going on in the village. There's a distinct lack of jounin running around. And I have to wonder if it had anything to do with the smokescreen that covered the village last night. And here I was starting to feel bored after weeks without an actual mission.

And when I make it to the hospital for my shift…that's when it gets really weird. One of the medics approaches me, an urgent look on her face. "You're requested immediately in Emergency Room Four for an autopsy."

"An autopsy?" That's weird. I usually tend t living patients in the emergency rooms. I've only rarely been invited in to look at an autopsy. "Wait, I'm requested? Do they need an observer?"

She shakes her head. "Lady Tsunade has ordered that you participate."

My eyes widen as I look towards the doors of the emergency room. "I see…" _Why does she want me to perform an autopsy? Are we really so short-staffed?_ Still, an order is an order. "Alright, I'll proceed immediately."

I should probably have given myself a little more time to prepare to see the body, but I'll get over the sight of the badly burned body soon enough.

Taking a deep breath, I step up to the table and look over the body on the table. "Can I…make a request?"

The other medics look at me strangely, and one of them, Nizuishi, I think his name is, nods. "What is it?"

I look back down at the body. "Don't tell me what we're looking for just yet. I want to avoid overlooking anything." I figure that if everything is a mystery, I'll look harder at the details.

He frowns, but nods anyway. "If you think it will help."

"I do." I pull on some surgical gloves and take my first poke at the body. "Alright…lets find out who you are and what killed you…"

One of the things that seems odd to me is that apart from the burns, the body is very…clean. _Hm…no callouses, no old scars…_ I move up the arm, finding something a little peculiar. _The muscles of the upper arms are particularly developed muscles…and this is an older person…_

I check the legs next, frowning at what I see. _The legs aren't developed in balance with the arms. This person used their arms more than their legs._ Knowing that, I take a dull blade and run it under the fingernails, extracting a white powder from underneath. Tentatively, I sniff it. _Flour?_

Suddenly, the muscled arms make sense. _A baker. But…that's not a ninja, so why are we doing an autopsy so urgently?_ I look over the body again, and notice this time that the burns are…rather superficial in a way. Sure, the body got blown to heck, but…there's not much blood at all around the wounds. _Was it done post-mortem…?_

That's when I spot the bruising at the back of the neck, nearly concealed by the burns. Cause of death…broken neck. _The burns were inflicted on the body after death…_

About an hour later, after a long time examining a bunch of my conclusions, the door opens. "What are they doing to him!?" Ino's voice grabs my attention from across the room.

Nizuishi leads her and Sakura further into the room. "They are examining every inch of him."

Ino shakes a little, her hand held up defensively. "Do they really have to do that?"

"He was in very bad shape…from what I understand, he had paper bombs from head to toe." Nizuishi is right about that much, the body is pretty wrecked. _Still…_

I step away from the body and walk over to Sakura, taking off my gloves and crossing my arms."Alright, something isn't adding up and I have a feeling you know what. So…tell me why I'm doing a civilian autopsy of a baker."

"What!?" Her eyes widen, and the entire room still. "What do you mean a baker? That's a ninja!"

I raise a skeptical eyebrow. "Well, I've found nothing to suggest that at all." Then I glance back at the table, and the sheet has been drawn back over the body. "Looks like they're done. But I already have my conclusion."

"I see…" Sakura heads for the door, opening it. "It's over, you can come back in now."

Surprisingly, when Ino returns, she's not alone, Hinata is with her. And they pass the other medics on their way out. By the sounds of it, I'm not the only one confused about the autopsy.

Still, I might as well get a second opinion, in case I missed something. "Hey, you three, come over here and take a look at this body, would you?"

Ino looks at me like I'm crazy. "What do you mean take a look? I'm not a medical ninja, how am I supposed to know what I'm looking for? I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Humor me." Because I know that there's something seriously weird going on.

Ino sighs and looks around, before noticing one f the uncovered hands. Bingo. "Sakura…our suspect here…he was undercover working as a carpenter in the village, right?"

Sakura looks at me nervously. "Yeah, that's right, did you notice something?"

"His hands, right?" I glance down at them as well.

She nods. "They're way too clean. My family owns a flower shop, and I've been serving people there since I was little. When I see someone's hands, I can tell what kind of work they do. Carpenters' hands are much rougher than this, with scrapes and cuts, and a trap ninja's hand would neer be that squeaky clean."

I smile in slight satisfaction. "That would be because we're looking at a baker's hand. I found flour under the fingernails. So unless this is a ninja who doesn't like handling weapons, uses his fists more than his feet, and likes to bake his own bread in his spare time…"

"May I take a look?" Hinata approaches the table, her eyes on the covered body.

"Go ahead. I think I already now what you'll find." I take a step back and wait.

Activating her Byakugan, her eyes look over the victim's body. "I thought so. There's no trace of a developed chakra network. This man has never infused his chakra." Then she turns to me. "Even you have doubts about his identity."

"Actually, I don't." I look down at the body. "This man is a civilian baker who died from a broken neck, whose body was then covered in weak explosive tags, which were then detonated. That is what I know. I have no doubts about it. This person is not a ninja, and is most certainly not whoever you thought it was. Your target got away."

"Then does that mean that he still has the blueprints!?" The three of them share significant looks that makes me wonder just what the hell is going on.

Nevertheless, it's time t move. "Sakura, report in to the Hokage's office and tell them what we found here. Ino, I assume that Shikamaru is spearheading whatever is going on here, so you go tell him. Hinata, I'm sure that there's something else to check or someone else to tell, go and do that now. I'll wrap up here and meet you all as soon as I can. Understood?"

All three of them nod, before heading for the doors.

* * *

It takes me another half hour to wrap up the autopsy and write down everything that I've discovered and observed. The other medics will likely continue it later, but for now, I think that helping out with whatever is going on is probably more important than examining a single murdered civilian.

Frankly, there's a lot of things on my mind more important to me than a case of mistaken identity in an autopsy case. And realizing that thought makes a hole open up in my stomach. I should be sad for the person that died. They probably had friends, a family, but…

As I walk outside, I look up at the sky and sigh. _Sasuke…are you alright? Are you eating well? Getting enough sleep? Are you pushing yourself too hard?_

That hollow pit in my stomach only grows, and my skin goes cold as I shiver. Then, with no warning at all, water drips down my cheeks. _Tears?_ I raise my hands to my eyes and they come away wet.

It's not the first time. But whatever causes it never seems to be the same. I don't really get it. All I do know is that one moment I'll be perfectly fine, happy even, and then…I'll feel sick and sad, and I'll end up crying and shivering. I haven't told anyone. I'm just kind of hoping that it'll go away on its own.

So, I dry the unexpected tears and focus my mind back on the mission at hand. Though I'm guessing that I'll have to get the details from Shikamaru. Grandma Tsunade would probably put him in charge of this, seeing as the jounin all seem to be away. The other medics mention an S-Level security alert, so I guess that explains why no one is around.

Gathering myself, I take a deep breath and search for the familiar chakra signatures of my friends. And I find them…all converged in one location. _The academy?_ That seems like an odd place for them all to meet up, but who am I to question the logic.

Ive been practicing the Body Flicker, a staple for any higher level shinobi. And after a few tries, I manage to flicker myself right into the practice hall, nearly landing right on top of Shikamaru. "We got lucky, that's for sure. Huh!?" He spins around, coming literally face to face with me, looking straight down at me. "Ciara!? What the heck, when did you get here?"

"I decided to put all that training with the Body Flicker to use." I rub the back of my head sheepishly. "Sorry for nearly landing on top of you. So…mind telling me why my autopsy turned out to be a baker, when everyone seems to have been expecting a ninja?"

Shikamaru blinks, then sighs. "I see, so you were conducting the autopsy. Alright. Well the victim was supposed to be an expert trap ninja who stole the blueprints to most of the major structures in the village. We got the blueprints back but…" He points to the wooden log of a target right behind me. "Neji spotted a trap in that target that could have blown the academy sky high if the center was hit."

I blink, all of that not what I was even slightly expecting to hear. "Okay…? So there's an explosive device in the training post? And…if the victim was supposed to be an expert trap ninja, then I'm guessing that you're all a bit wary about trying to disarm it."

"Exactly." I turn my head to Neji, whose Byakugan is trained on the bottom of the post. "There's a paper bomb embedded into the bottom, attached to a fuse that leads to another paper bomb elsewhere in the building."

"A fuse?" I turn towards the post, then touch it gently. "So…if we were to cut the fuse…would that help at all?"

"Well it would, if we could get to it." Shikamaru frowns. "Problem is, if we touch it, we could set it off."

"I see…" I crouch down next to the post, before laying my hands on it. "Okay, Neji, I'm going to need your eyes and your hands for a little bit."

His eyebrows crease slightly. "What is it that you need me to do?"

I move my hands around a bit more. "I need you to use your Byakugan and hands to place my fingers at the places where the fuse is on either side of the paper bomb. Then, I need to know how deep the fuse is."

He doesn't ask any questions, thankfully, simply crouching down behind me and taking hold of my hands. He moves them slowly, pressing them to the wood, and angling them slightly. "Four inches in and downward at a fifty degree angle."

"Thank you." Now, I just have to have confidence in my abilities, and trust in the precision of my medical ninjutsu. "…Now!" I shoot chakra from my fingertips, mot even breathing as I wait several seconds for the result.

Hinata gasps. "You…cut the fuse."

"What!?" Shikamaru looks down in alarm. "How did you-

"Chakra scalpel. It's a staple of any good medical ninja. It's more precise than using a regular blade, and it can cut things that a normal tool might not be able to." I breathe a sigh of relief at knowing that I succeeded. "But hw many more bombs are there, and how many fuses?"

"U-uh, actually…" Hinata fidgets a little. "I didn't know what it meant, but I was looking at the explosive device and there's more than one fuse leading to it."

"What!? Are you sure, Hinata!?" Naruto's surprise at that knowledge makes me wonder if they even considered that there might be more than two bombs. She nods.

At the looks of shock and surprise around the room, I frown. "Uh…I'm far from a trap expert, but…if you're going to attack a building, then just two paper bombs isn't going to do it. You'd need to put about thirty bombs in a building this big in order to level it…"

Neji looks away from the post and into the wall, his face creasing further with anger and worry. "She's right, there's more than one. There's two…no, three!"

"But where d they all lead?" Clearly, this was not in whatever calculations Shikamaru made.

Neji's eyes follow the fuses unseen to our eyes. "Somewhere outside the academy." Then, his eyes widen in shock. "I can't see clearly from in here." Clearly, that means that something serious is wrong. Him pushing his way out of the building is another clue in that respect. And Hinata follows him outside, jumping onto the roof while the rest of us race outside to watch them.

And judging by the looks of horror on their faces, what they're seeing isn't good. Especially when their eyes travel far outside the grounds of the academy.

"Neij, what do you see!?" Shikamaru calls up to them, but it doesn't even disturb their focus for an instant. This definitely can't be good…

So, Naruto tries his hand at it next. "Hey! Did you find anything!?"

"There's paper bombs all over the village, and they're all connected!" Okay, the situation really has to be bad if Hinata is talking to Naruto with no stutter in sight.

"Not just ten or twenty paper bombs either, but dozens of them, hundreds of them!" Neji's apparent panic now seems rather well warranted. "There's too many to count!"

Damn it! "Well, that sounds more like what an expert trap ninja would do." If I specialized in traps, that's about hat I would do if I wanted to take out a village quickly and without anyone figuring it out. Except…that we did figure it out. Well, in theory, now we still have to deal with it.

Neji seems to agree. "The entire Leaf Village is a giant nest of paper bombs."

That's…bad. Still, there's one thing that we should do before moving on from the academy. "Lee, come with me, I need your help."

Lee doesn't even have a moment to protest as I grab his arm and drag him back into the building. "Ah, what is it? What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to pull the target out of the ground. There's still a paper bomb under it, and it's better to be safe than sorry." I really just don't want to leave it there, in case something else manages to trigger it.

"Ah, yes, I see." He looks at the log for a moment, before wrapping his arms around it, bracing himself, and then pulling it straight up out of the floor.

"Perfect." I kneel down next to the hole, and find myself staring directly at a paper bomb. "Now…to dispose of it." I reach for the paper bomb as the others come rushing back inside.

"Hey Ciara! What do you think you're doing!?" Naruto comes running as I pick up the paper bomb. "Be careful! You could blow yourself up."

I smirk at him, then light the bomb, crushing it in my hand as it turns to ash. "Fire affinity, remember? A bomb isn't going to cut it with me." Then, I get back up and turn to Shikamaru. "I'm borrowing Neji's eyes, alright? With him around, I should be able to cut a lot of the fuses, and we might be able to extract some of the paper bombs as well."

He nods. "Alright, go. I'll report in to Lady Tsunade about the situation." Then, Shikamaru turns to the rest of the group. "Alright, pair up and spread out. We need to find all of the bombs before Genno decides to set them off. The fuses are the first priority, but if you can get the bombs out and destroy them, do it."

"Alright, then let's go!" I turn, grabbing Neji on my way out. "Lead me to the highest concentration of paper bombs and make sure to guide my hands. I can do the rest."

"Right." His eyes swerve around, locking on the direction of the market district. "Over there! There's a bomb on every building in the area."

"Well, then I guess we have a lot of work to do." I motion with my head, and the two of us head out. We'd best be fast about this. There's no telling how long it will take this trap expert to catch on to what we're doing. He could just detonate everything out of spite.

When we reach the first of the bomb sites, Neji carefully places my hands on the wood, letting me perform my chakra scalpel to defuse the bomb. One down…several hundred more to go…

"Come, the next one is this way." He points to a wall about fifteen feet away.

"Alright." And we proceed to defusing the next one, and then another, and another, the same thing over and over until I've crushed up at least seventy paper bombs. It's meticulous work, but nothing that I can't handle. There's just one problem. "Neji, are your eyes okay?"

I hear a very quiet sigh behind me. "I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about."

 _Right…like I'm going to just believe that._ Since there's no other bombs in the area, I turn to Neji and frown upon seeing some swelling around his eyes. "Turn your Byakugan off."

At first, it looks like he wants to argue, but he does as I tell him and relaxes his eyes. "Very well."

"Jeez…" I concentrate chakra in my hand and get close to Neji, holding it up over his eyes. "Don't move. This should help with the strain and exhaustion." I do kind of feel like decking him, though. "If you push yourself too hard, you might seriously damage your eyes. If you need to take a break, say so. We're not the only ones out here working on the bombs."

"Taking a break can wait until the threat is gone." Man, I've heard of having a work ethic, but sometimes, Neji can be ind of ridiculous.

I increase the chakra flow in my hand and shake my head. "Is this a guy thing? I mean, seriously…talk about stubborn."

"I believe, in this instance, the pot is calling the kettle black." He glares down at me half-heartedly when I remove my hand. "After all, during training, even when it would be reasonable for you to ask for a break, you do not."

I roll my eyes. "That's because for training, the whole point is to push my body beyond its limits. Besides, I heal faster than you do, so it's not the same in the first place."

He looks at me disapprovingly, but doesn't say a word as he looks towards the Hokage Mountain, his Byakugan activating again, just for an instant. "The others are on the move. Shall we join them?"

I look up there as well, staring at the mountain. "What do you want to bet there's another trap up there?"

"I wouldn't take a bet like that." Neji smirks tiredly. "It seems that this game of his never ends."

 _Game…?_ "Come on, let's go!" I leap onto the roof of a nearby building, racing across the rooftops with Neji following close behind me.

The two of us almost race to the mountain, like Lee and I did during a few of our training sessions. And it's only minutes later that the two of us land on top of the Third Hokage's head.

Neji scouts around a bit, then points further ahead on the stone structure. "There, another paper bomb. And everyone is converging on this location." He looks down, eyes still looking through the rock. "And Genno is below us with Naruto, Kiba, and Shino."

"Alright, then they can be the distraction." I still hate using anyone as a distraction, but in this case, they were doing it for us anyway.

I approach the paper bomb, frowning. _If he set off enough of these up here…he could bury the village in rock. Is that…what he was planning all along?_ Well, not that it matters as I press my hand to the paper bomb, rendering it completely useless. _Might as well screw with his head a little._ _It looks functional, but he's in for a surprise._ "Alright, now let's hide. I have a feeling he'll be up here in a minute."

Neji and I head back behind one of the small buildings up here, running into…well, everyone but those down in the old man's head. Shikamaru glances worriedly at me. "The bomb?"

"Useless now." I check back over my shoulder. "He'll probably be up here in a minute to try and set it off. You ready?"

"Yeah." He motions to Chouji. "You come with me, everyone else stay hidden."

"Got it…" I crouch and watch as the two of them head out towards the head.

That's when the trap expert appears. He uncovers the paper bomb that I disarmed earlier, taking out a kunai and stabbing it downward. "And now it's over!" _You're right, it is over._ Shikamaru's newest shadow jutsu stops Genno's movements entirely. "W-what s this?"

Chouji laughs as Shikamaru smirks. "It's the Shadow Strange Jutsu."

"You figured out my plan?" And yet, something in his voice doesn't sound so surprised.

"Yep. Checkmate, old man, now you just come right over here." Shikamaru gets the guy up, walking him over and away from the bomb.

Of course, as soon as Chouji tries to restrain the old man, everything almost blows up in our faces, literally. Smoke bombs go off, and the old man escapes, heading for the bomb as Chouji expands and rolls around, chasing him.

"Now, the Leaf Village is finished!" Luckily, when the kunai slams into the paper bomb, nothing happens. "But…why? Why didn't it explode?"

"Yeah…tough luck." Tenten nudges me with her elbow. "It's already been disarmed.

"And all of those explosive devices in the mountainside images…we disarmed those as well." Neji's words put a grin on my face. _That explains where everyone else was. You guys work fast…_

Naruto steps forward, his expression stern. "Just give it up, old man, it's over."

"That's right, end of the line." Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Lee leap onto the roofs of the two buildings flanking us. "Fleeing is useless!"

"No matter how much of a trap master you think you might be, our teamwork is gonna beat you every time old man. Just face it!" _Naruto and his teamwork…well, I guess I can't complain when it gets results like this. It's not like he's wrong, either._ Our group definitely gets a lot more done through teamwork than anything else, especially with the vast range of abilities we've got going for us.

Genno bows his head. "I could no more give up than stop breathing.

"Argh, get real, will ya?" Naruto starts growling, a habit he has when really upset. "No matter what you may have said, you know we're gonna get it!"

"How…could I show my face to my son?" He raises his arm and shoots a flare into the sky. But something's wrong, because he just jumps over above the Fourth Hokage's head and…stands there. But as everyone else starts freaking out, it clicks. _Genjutsu!_

It takes only seconds for Sakura to figure out that it's a genjutsu, and while she goes about releasing them all, I'm in the air, jumping over towards the old man as he performs a summoning jutsu.

Just as he grabs hold of the giant bird, Ino hits him with a mind transfer, forcing him to let go and land back down below me as I slam into the cliff above him, attaching myself to the rock by my feet.

Then, something goes wrong, and Ino undoes the jutsu, collapsing to her knees. _What's going on?_ Then, I look up, and I don't like what I see. "Lee! Get over here and restrain him!"

Lee leaps through the air, already aiming the first punch. "You will not escape!" Half a dozen attempted blows later, and a smokescreen hides the two of them from sight. Well, until I focus in on their heat signatures instead. _Gotta say, the old guy is pretty spry for his age._

Still, Lee has little trouble taking the old man down, even if it takes a few dozen tries. And as Naruto leaps over as well, my eyes turn skyward once more. "Shikamaru, we have a problem!"

That gets everyone's attention fast, and Shikamaru's eyes widen. "Where's the bird!?"

I point up, about two hundred feet above us. "There!" The bird circle overhead, before getting further and further away, and circling back around, heading straight for the crack on the old man's face. "We have to bring it down!"

"On it!" Tenten takes out of of her weapon scrolls, pulling a crossbow out of it and firing off four bolts in quick succession. And despite her usually flawless aim, nothing connects.

"Well, I'm gonna defend the Leaf Village no matter what!" Foolishly, Naruto jumps over right onto the crack running through the stone face, with no regard for the fact that he won't even be able to get at the bird. If Tenten couldn't hit it with a weapon, there's no way that Naruto will be able to beat that kind of aim.

And then, of course, the idiot has to go and try to use his Rasengan, making a clone, only to fall off the old man's face. I resist the urge to facepalm as Chouji catches him in giant hands. "Naruto! Stay there!" I guess…it's about time I did more than just disarm the bombs. So, I jump back over to the old man's face, then look back at everyone. "Can you all keep a secret?"

Shikamaru raises an eyebrow. "Uh…sure, I guess. But why?"

"Just…" I swallow nervously as I look around at all of them. "Just watch…"

It's been so long since the last time I stretched my wings, I almost forgot how it felt. In fact, I think this is the first time since they were broken by Kimimaro that I've let them out. And that was nearly three months ago.

Still, I take to the sky, zooming past Naruto as Chouji helps him climb back up the cliff. I soar through the air, spiraling around slightly to make sure that I don't give myself vertigo, before flapping my wings and heading straight for the bird's foot.

Once I'm right in front of the bird, I flip over for just a second, ripping the tag off its foot and crushing it, before falling through the air to do a loop and regain my bearings.

Out of nowhere, Naruto comes flashing by, Rasengan in hand, and drives it straight into the bird's face. "Take this!"

"Naruto!" I reach out as the bird disappears in a puff of smoke, and Naruto starts to fall to the ground. "You stupid idiot! What the hell were you thinking!?"

He chuckles sheepishly as I catch him under his arms, supporting him as my wings do all the work in taking us back to the cliff. "Uh, well, I just thought that you could use some help is all."

Okay, now the only thing keeping my face and hand from meeting is the fact that I'm keeping Naruto from falling to his death. "I hope that you realize just how stupid that was. Don't ever do that again!"

"Fine, fine, jeez…" He pouts as I let him down on the old man's head, sitting himself down and looking determinedly away from me.

Now…if only Naruto were the least of my problems. I look around at a group of rather stunned genin, and one chunin. In fact, the only ones not stunned are Naruto and Sakura, and that's likely because they've seen me do this before. "Uh…so…um…this is…one of my abilities?" _Damn, that sounded so weak…_

Surprisingly, Kiba is the one to shrug himself out of it first. "Hey, if it works, it works. I can turn into a giant wolf, so what can I say about it?"

I blink in surprise. "So…you're not going to start yelling and freaking out and calling me a demon, or a monster, or a freak?" Because honestly, I expected someone to have that reaction.

"Well, are you a demon, a monster, or a freak?" Chouji asks it like he's trying to decide on what flavor of chips to buy.

Shikamaru taps his friend on the head. "Chouji, don't go asking stuff like that." His eyes find my wings and he shrugs. "Anyway, we can talk about…this later if you want. But unless you want the whole village to see you with wings, glowing eyes, and feathers sticking out of your head, you might wanna put all that away."

"Right…" I relax a little, letting the feathers all burn away, along with the remnants of the paper bomb still clutched in my hand. The light in my eyes fades back to normal, and I shift from foot to foot. "So uh…I can grow wings, sorta."

"And I can see through walls. Now, if we're done pointing out the obvious…" Neji stares at me pointedly, somehow diffusing all of my tension. "We should probably take care of Genno."

"Ah…that's right…" I look over to where Lee has brought Genno's severely weakened body. "Let's see what we can do about that. Sakura, come with me. You've been learning medical ninjutsu, right?"

"Yes." She nods, following me and sitting on the other side of Genno's body. "So um…what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Just try to heal him as much as you can. If we can keep him alive long enough to get some answers, that would help a lot." Though considering how old the guy looks, I don't have much hope for keeping him around long.

That feeling is reinforced when I figure out just how much damage he's got on the inside. _This is bad…he's not going to make it through the night._

"He's…all beat up inside." Sakura pulls her hand back, quickly giving up on healing him, though my hands are still glowing with the effort. "It's…amazing that he lasted as long as he did."

I look around at the others, then back down at my patient. "If anyone has anything to say to him, I suggest that you do it now. I don't know how long I can keep him alive."

Everyone stays silent, except for Naruto. "Old man…"

He opens his eyes, turning his head to gaze up at Naruto. "Such a shame…I wasn't able to leave my mark on history. But…I did…have fun…" And that's when I lose his vitals. He just…gives up.

"What do you mean you had fun?" Naruto leans over, shaking him. "Come on, wake up, old man! What did you mean by that!? Please, stay with me!" He turns to me. "Ciara, can you wake him up?"

I pull my hands back, shaking my head. "No, there's nothing left that I can do. He's gone."

Naruto's face falls, and for once, Shino raises his voice. "Did anyone notice…throughout this whole thing, there hasn't been one casualty in the Leaf Village."

That realization comes as something of a shock, so much so that I barely hear Naruto crying over the old man's body. _Not a single casualty? But…how could a trap expert's bombs not hurt a single person? What was his game?_

Game. I feel like groaning right now. _What, was this all just a game to him?_

Shikamaru passes me a piece of paper. "Here, take a look at this."

I look at it, seeing the picture of a kid who looks a fair bit like Naruto, before turning it over to see the message on the back. _His son…? A treasure hunt? He likes treasure hunting?_ I look around, then down at my other hand, the one that crushed so many paper bombs. _Were we…on some kind of treasure hunt?_

Great, now I wish that I could bring the old man back just to interrogate him. None of it adds up. At least, unless all of this was a game, and he was just trying to mess around with us. Not a single bomb actually went off. There's no way he could have been that sloppy.

 _We've been had._

And that is what merits the palm to my face. _Never again. I am never going on a treasure hunt for bombs ever again._


	75. Returning the Favor

**Okay, time for Gaara to make a reappearance. This is going to be the last arc before the timeskip, I hope that you all enjoy it. Though it's hard to believe how much you can fit into just one or two chapters when the character you're following is in more of a support role. It's wrapping up a lot faster than I expected. Anyway, there'll be a chapter after this, and then maybe another to see this through the hospitalization and all that fun stuff. And of course, there'll be a rather sweet goodbye to wrap up the last chapter of this section. Now, please enjoy some fun, some sweetness, and some crack.**

 **Because the crack is what you're all here for, right?**

* * *

I can't believe that it's almost winter. Naruto's thirteenth birthday has come and gone, as have over half a dozen missions to chase down leads on Sasuke, none of them panning out, in the end.

It's been months since we lost him to Orochimaru. And still, I find myself worrying about him.

I sit in my room, finally having a day off from my shifts at the hospital. So, since I've got no taijutsu training today, I'm reading the latest letter to arrive from Gaara. He's been writing fairly regularly, and I usually get a letter once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, depending on if he's on a mission or not.

This letter I'm holding is telling me about the academy that he and his siblings are setting up in the Sand to train new ninja. Apparently, they're trying to base it off the Leaf's curriculum, though with a few Sand Village twists, of course.

"Ciara, are you in there!?" Shikamaru's voice accompanies rather loud banging on my front door.

Sliding off my bed, I head to the door and open it to see a semi-panicked, but mostly irritated Shikamaru. That's not good. "What happened and where are we going?"

A slight smile crosses his face. "I knew I could count on you. Get ready to leave. We're being sent in to back up Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro on a rescue mission. Gaara's student has been kidnapped by a group of four ninjas. I want a medical ninja on this, and you're my best option right now. We leave from the front gate in twenty-five minutes."

I let that all sink in for about two seconds, then grin. "Give me two minutes, and I'll be at the gate, waiting for you."

"Alright, I'll go round up the others." He disappears from my door, leaving me to head back into my room and gather my medical supplies, always kept in the exact same place every time I come home. On go the straps, the medical kit, and the weapons. Last but not least, my headband. It really is useful nowadays for keeping my bangs out of my eyes, which is becoming something of a constant problem.

* * *

As promised, I meet Lee, Kiba, Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru at the front gate of the village. For all of us to be here…must mean that this is going to be a rough mission. Shikamaru wouldn't be asking for all of us otherwise. And that makes me very anxious.

Chouji impatiently turns to his teammate as the time to depart draws nearer. "I though I was always the late one. Who are we waiting for? Let's get going!"

"We're still waiting for one more." Shikamaru stares ahead, barely even fazed by the question.

Ino groans. "Oh, don't tell me it's-"

"Naruto!?" I look back into the village to see Naruto sprinting towards us.

He races into the group, skidding a little. "Sorry, I couldn't leave on a mission with an empty stomach, so I stopped by Ichiraku for a bite to eat."

Chouji's eyes burn with envy. "Oh that's not fair, why do you get to stop for a bite to eat and-"

Shikamaru skillfully cuts off the complaining efore it can escalate into a full-blown argument. "Alright, now that everyone has finally arrived, let's get moving!"

"What!?" Naruto looks around in confusion. "You gotta be kidding! I heard this was some big mission and all the genin in the village had been assigned to it!"

Shikamaru shakes his head at Naruto's antics. "Everyone is here who's supposed to be."

"Oh, that's messed up! I mean, I know Sakura has training and all, but what about Shino, Neji, and Hinata!? Shouldn't they be here?" He makes something of a good point, but it's not like he's let Shikamaru explain anything yet. That would probably help.

Kiba nods. "That's true…I noticed that Akamaru and I are the only ones here with any scouting abilities."

"So what you have organized here is a no-nonsense, take-action group of ninja." Lee's input is slightly more helpful, though still pointing out something rather obvious.

"That's right." Shikamaru's face grows stern, it's his mission face. And it's gotten a lot calmer and more confident in recent months. "In fact, I'm calling this team 'Return the Favor'." Okay, that name makes even me cringe. "You guys remember when the Sasuke incident went down?" _Right…we're calling it the 'Sasuke Incident'._ "The Sand Village was right there to help us out. So now, we're returning the favor. You got a problem with that?"

Naruto takes to that explanation with gusto. "Come on guys! Let's go return us a favor from a long time ago!"

"In case you've forgotten, you're not in charge." Kiba rolls his eyes and his furry partner barks in agreement. And I still haven't convinced him to teach me how to speak dog yet.

Chouji concurs. "We'll take our orders from Shikamaru, the squad leader."

"That is right, or Ciara, who also happens to be a chunin." I glance at Lee, smiling at the vote of confidence.

Still, that doesn't diminish Naruto's energy at all. "Whatever, but we gotta hurry up and decide on a plan so we can get going. Whaddya think, should we use the same strategy from when Sasuke left?"

Shikamaru coughs. "There are definitely similarities to the Sasuke Incident. However, I believe that this pursuit and ambush will require different tactics. The trail's cold, so the Byakugan and Akamaru's nose won't be as much help this time. I know it's unconventional, but it's our only choice. We'll break up into squads of two and you'll work together as a single unit. You don't leave your partner under any circumstances! We'll pay back our debt to the Sand Village, but I don't intend to pay it with our lives. You all need to watch yourselves out there."

Already, I see one hitch in the plan. "Alright, but we have an odd number here. I assume you have a plan for that as well."

He nods. "About four kilometers to the north-west, you'll find Shino waiting for you. He's been scouting ahead. You're out medic, so I want you to keep away from the fighting if at all possible. But knowing our track record, if things go belly-up, I want you-"

"Ready to go ballistic on the enemy at a moment's notice?" Since that seems to be what I often end up doing. "Gotcha. I'll go meet up with Shino in the meantime."

"Thanks." Shikamaru nods as I turn to leave. "Good luck."

"You too!" And I take off at a run, heading to the north-west, where Shino is allegedly waiting for me.

I race through the trees, almost riding the wind as I pick up speed, covering large amounts of ground in seconds. I made sure to leave my weights at home for today, since time is of the essence. And I never knew just how much they were slowing me down until I took them off. I'm at least twice as fast as I used to be before training started.

It takes me about fifteen minutes to catch up to Shino, his bugs guiding me straight to him once I get within half a kilometer of his position.

As I land on a branch near his head, he looks up at me. "Good to see you made it."

"Helping Gaara out? I wouldn't miss this for the world." Even if I'm not supposed to enter combat, I have a feeling that there are going to be injuries to attend to.

"You do realize that our unit is not supposed to enter combat, right?" His voice remains fairly monotone, but I get the feeling that he's a little worried.

I smile down at him from the branch. "Oh, I know. But our plans tend to go awry more often than not. So I'm prepared to fight if I have to." Then, my eyes scan the trees around us. "Have your insects found anything yet?"

"Not yet, but-" An insect lands on his finger, silencing him. "Nevermind, it seems that I have something." The bugs start to swirls around him, and he nods. "Understood, three separate battle zones."

I scoff lightly. "Well, that sounds familiar. Splitting up into one on one battles in order to get one person to the finish line." _But if there are four targets…then that means that at least one of the battles will have to end if there's any hope of saving the girl._

"Yes, now to pass the information on to Shikamaru." He tilts his head ever so slightly, and the bugs take the signal, racing off in the direction I just came from.

Ten minutes later, some of the bugs return to Shino, and he's silent as he listens to their message. "It's from Shikamaru. He says that it's a trap."

"Tch." I bite my lip to stop myself from cursing. "Of course it is."

Shino continues to observe the situation. "Don't worry, it's a straight up battle. No sign of any chakra surges in the valley. There's no trap."

"Yeah, for now…" After all, a ninja must always expect the unexpected. And though I always try to hop for the best, I've been learning to just expect the worst. "I'm going in. With the battles underway, they're going to need me on the battlefield to tend to the wounded."

"Alright, I'll stay here and continue observing." Other than that, he gives no indication that he's going to do anything or protest doing anything.

So, with no arguments from Shino, I race through the trees, heading for a rising pillar of sand, on which I can see Gaara swinging around his opponent like some kind of out of control yo-yo.

The scene I come upon, however, is not one of Gaara kicking his opponent's butt. "Damn it!" I race in, my hands already reaching into my medical kit. "Naruto! Lee!"

"Ciara!" They both look rather happy to see me as I approach the battle. Though it doesn't look like much of a battle anymore, considering that Gaara's opponent is face-down in the dirt.

"Ciara…? What are you doing here?" Gaara blinks at me bemusedly.

I smile and sit down behind him. "I'm the medic on this mission. I'm here to take care of any injuries that occur. But…this time, I'm supposed to leave the fighting to everyone else."

His eyes express just a minute bit of panic. "But Kankuro and Temari-"

"Will be fine." I press my hands to his shoulders and keep him firmly on the ground. "They have teams to back them up as well. And once I'm done here, I promise that I'll go and make sure that any injuries they have are attended to." I frown slightly at the color of Gaara's sand armor. It looks like mud, to be honest, and it feels very wet under my fingers. "Though it looks like we're going to need to dry you out, first." I turn my attention to Lee and Naruto, and note that the big guy is getting back to his feet. "You two take care of that guy over there, Gaara will be fine with me."

"Alright, then, allow me to get the ball rolling!" Lee charges in like a madman, though I suppose that I shouldn't have expected any less, considering how..enthusiastic he can be when a fight breaks out.

Gaara shifts a little. "Be careful, his armor can absorb your chakra."

I snort with laughter. "They'll be fine. Even if chakra techniques are useless, those two have more than enough taijutsu skills to give that guy a headache." I turn my attention to Gaara's injured leg. "You must have taken quite a fall, though, to have gotten injured like this.

"Yes, about eighty feet onto a pile of sand." Well, that certainly explains a lot.

I focus my fire nature into my chakra, trying to dry out Gaara's sand armor while I heal the contusions on his leg. And it seems to be working well enough, because slowly but surely, he's looking less and less like he got into a fight with a mud monster.

When the bugs show up, I have to stifle yet another curse. Gaara's eyes find the bugs and his eyes narrow. "Contact from your friends?"

"Yeah, Ino is hurt. And it looks like Kankuro took some damage as well." I increase the output of healing chakra, as well as transferring a large amount of chakra straight into Gaara's reserves. "I'll head over in a little bit."

"Go." He stands up, without my permission. "They need you now."

"But Gaara, you're still injured!" There's no way I can just leave him like this. I need to get him back into fighting shape first.

He shakes his head. "I'll be fine, now get going. The others need you more than I do.

Somehow, I highly doubt that, but I suppose that sticking around where I'm not wanted will just cause additional problems. "Fine, but take these." I reach into my medical kit for a couple of food pills and a roll of bandages, as well as a small bottle of antiseptic. "Just in case…"

He takes them without complaint. "Thank you…"

"Oh, don't thank me just yet." I shoot him a dirty look. "Because when this is all over, you and I are having a serious conversation about you trying to run me off while I'm just trying to do my job as medic."

He breathes out what I could swear was half a chuckle, before looking off into the woods. "Now go, your friend is hurt, and so is Kankuro."

"Fine, fine, I get it already!" I close up my medical kit again, looking back at Gaara one more time. "Good luck." And then I take off through the trees for the closest injury. Ino's.

Fortunately, it looks like I've time myself to arrive just as the battle is ending. So I plant myself down next to Ino and smile. "Alright, where's the injury?"

She looks up at me, before pointing to her shoulder and dropping her eyes to the ground. "Right there…"

"Alright…" I take a look at the cut. It's deep, but not too long. So I reach into my bag for another bottle of antiseptic, and I dab it on the cut, ignoring her winces. "It's alright, I just want to make sure to disinfect it before sealing it up." Once I'm satisfied with its cleanliness, I press my hand lightly to it, emanating chakra from there. It takes less than a minute to seal up the entire cut. "There, good as new. And you won't even have a scar from it."

"Right…that's good." She looks so dejected, though I can't imagine why.

So, I decide to pry a little. "What's wrong?"

She twiddles her thumbs, her expression not changing. "I didn't do anything at all…everyone else is contributing, but I…"

"I see…" I pat her gently on the shoulder. "Then this just wasn't your day. You were matched up with the wrong opponent, and you didn't get a chance to shine. It happens to everyone. Just do your best for next time, alright?"

She looks back at me, her expression lightening a little. "Jeez…look at you, acting all grown up. You're younger than the rest of us, but you're so…mature."

"Are you kidding me?" I stifle a laugh at that. "Have you seen me and Naruto? We're like a couple of hoodlums some days. Not exactly exceptional ninja material."

"Are you kidding?" Ino's mouth drops open, her eyes wide. "I've seen you and Shikamaru giving out orders and I've heard about the missions you've been a captain for. I even saw you doing that autopsy. You're…" She sighs again. "You do so much…"

I let out a little huff and smile wryly. "And yet, there's always more to do. Anyway, I have to go. Apparently, Kankuro is also injured, so he's my next stop."

Upon hearing that, her expression becomes stricken. "Ah, yeah, right. Go on then, he needs your help now."

"Alright, just make sure not to run into any more tornadoes, okay?" I try not to laugh at my own joke.

"Okay…" She watches me almost sadly as I back away and orient myself towards the next battle.

 _Alright, so two of the battles should be over by now. Time to check on Kankuro, Kiba, and Chouji._ I speed through the trees, following the sounds of further battle to the next location.

I land in the trees near the battle, only to hear a rather familiar voice. "Secret Black Move: Iron Maiden!" And then comes the screaming as the two puppets come together, skewering whatever poor idiot ended up in there.

"Well…I suppose that you don't need my help for the actual battle then." I draw three pairs of human eyes and one canine pair to my presence. "So, I got an injury report regarding a certain puppetmaster." I eye Kankuro sternly. "Are you going to be a good boy and sit down while I treat you, or are you going to be like your little brother and try to shoo me off before I'm done?"

He glares at me for that comment. "I have to get to Gaara and back him up. I have no time to be sitting around, resting."

"And what help will you be to him if you're injured?" I raise an eyebrow. "If you don't want to take a break, then you're going to be next to useless when the real battle breaks out."

And helpfully, well to the boys, but it's sure unhelpful to me, the bugs are back, spelling out a disturbing message. Gaara is on the move again, chasing down the fourth rogue, the one who has his student.

Kankuro packs up his puppet, ignoring his own injuries. "Looks like it's time to go."

"You need healing!" I can't believe how stubborn he is. Are all men this freaking stubborn!? I pinch the bridge of my nose, before my eyes fix on the puppet Kankuro is sliding onto his back. "Wait!"

"Not now, we have to go!" Kankuro growls at me irritably, his eyes flashing with anger.

I drop from the trees and pint at the puppets on Kankuro's back. "Hand those off to Chouji and Kiba. They can carry them to the next battlefield."

Kankuro continues to glare at me. "I can carry my own puppets."

"Not with me on your back, you can't." And those words obviously confuse him. So, I explain. "Let them carry the puppets. I'll ride on your back and heal you en route to the battlefield. That way, I can do my job, and you can go and provide backup for Gaara. Is that acceptable?"

It takes Kankuro about fifteen seconds to come up with an answer. "Fine. It'll slow us down a bit, but at least we won't waste too much time." He hands his puppets off to Kiba and Chouji, before kneeling down for me. "Get on."

"Right." I stride over and carefully situate myself on his back, giving myself room to work on his still bleeding shoulder. I rub my hands together, before locking them around his neck and pressing down on the wound, healing it, and working on replenishing his chakra. "Now, let's go."

Kankuro seamlessly manages to break into a run, even with me riding on his back, which I suppose is a testament to all the time he spends lugging around those puppets. And he runs smoothly enough that I have little trouble healing the deep wound to his shoulder.

About two thirds of the way there, though, we come across Lee sitting on the ground. "Damn it. Kankuro, stop for a second."

"What!? Why?" But he still stops, letting me down from his back. "Are you done healing me now?"

I nod. "You're about as healed as you're gonna get. Unfortunately, it looks like Lee needs me now. So the three of you can go on ahead. I'll stay here, take care of Lee, and then bring him along when he's in fighting shape."

Kiba grins at me. "Got it. And we'll try to save a little of the bad guy for you, alright? It looks like you're gonna need something to take out that pent-up frustration on anyway."

"Tch." I whack Kiba upside the head. "Just go. There's no time to lose, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine!" Kiba takes off, followed closely by Chouji and Kankuro.

As I kneel down next to Lee, laying him out flat on the ground, I smile. "Looks like you overdid it again."

He laughs weakly. "Yes, it would seem so."

I bonk him square on the forehead with the backs of my knuckles. "That's nothing to laugh about, now…" I run my hand over his leg, which seems to be a bit swollen. "How much does your leg hurt? And please, be honest. If you try to act all tough and like it's nothing, you'll suffer more damage in the long run. And I really don't think that you want to go through that again."

"That is true…" He shifts his leg slightly, wincing. "Then I suppose that I am in a great deal of pain. I believe that something has…disconnected."

"Disconnected, huh?" I press down lightly on his leg, letting my chakra seep in and examine it. "Disconnected is putting it mildly. You've ripped several muscles. My guess would be high speed taijutsu with too much force behind it." I shoot him a pointed look. "I wonder how that could have happened."

Lee immediately starts looking rather guilty, but I just shake my head and go about treating the injuries. Honestly, he's had worse, I know that already. But still, he needs to develop more sense regarding how much he allows himself to get injured. Scrapes and bruises are one thing. Severed muscles are another.

Carefully, one by one, I reconnect the hundreds of severed muscle fibers in his leg, meticulously working to make sure than not even a single pair have been switched. Not even the most minute error will be allowed. He's suffered more than enough permanent damage for one lifetime, and I am not going to cause him any more.

When I'm just about done, Lee sits himself back up and looks me in the eye. "Is it almost done now?"

"Yeah, almost, just give me another ten seconds." I watch him out of the corner of my eye as I connect the last fibers. "What are you planning on doing when I declare that your treatment is over?"

"I will go to help Gaara, of course." He says it like it's a no-brainer. And maybe it is.

Still, I am a medical ninja, and I cannot in good conscience allow him back on the battlefield without at least warning him first. "I've finished reconnecting your muscles, but you're still in no shape to fight a full-scale battle. If there's something small that you can do to contribute, fine. But no extreme taijutsu or super special moves, alright? You need to rest and heal naturally before you'll be back up to full strength."

He gaze doesn't waver in the slightest. "But I will still go to help him. I will return this favor that he did for our village."

His determination surprises me, since I'm sure that he has nothing but bad memories of Gaara. "If that's your decision, then I won't stop you, but I urge you to proceed with caution. Besides, I'm the one he rescued, I have more reason than you do to want to join him on the battlefield."

"I see." He pumps his fists into the air. "Then let us be off! We will go to rescue Gaara together!"

I blink bemusedly at his enthusiasm, before allowing a smile to sweep across my face. "Yeah, let's go." I help him to his feet, making sure that he can actually run steadily, before taking off at a reasonable pace. After all, I may want to help Gaara, but re-injuring Lee is not on my list of things I want to do today.

Now, off to help Gaara.


	76. The Wrath of Seimei

**Okay, so here comes the battle chapter (even though everyone but Naruto basically misses half the battle to begin with). It's not very long, but I wanted to keep it separate from the next chapter, which is going to be fairly short (I think), but wrap up this segment quite nicely.**

* * *

Lee and I run through the trees for a while eventually meeting up with Shikamaru, Ino, Temari, Shino, Neji, and Hinata. It seems that about half our forces are here right now.

Lee hails our mission leader. "Hay, Shikamaru!"

"So, what's the word!?" _Reconnaissance as soon as we show up? Great…_ Sometimes, I applaud Shikamaru's habit of gathering information, but sometimes, like right now, it annoys me, because Lee knows squat.

"We do not know Naruto and Gaara's location!" And…Lee points out exactly what I was already thinking, which is not helpful in the slightest.

I look on ahead, my eyes already burning, color flooding them as I look for traces left behind by Naruto and Gaara. After all, stealth is most definitely not Naruto's strong suit. "I can see their tracks. And I can sense their chakra up ahead." _But…Gaara's is…warped. That can't be good. And it feels like that time after the Chunin Exams, when he transformed…_

"Got it." Shikamaru looks to our trackers. "Neji, Hinata, look ahead and tell me what the situation is!"

Hinata is the first to look ahead and report back. "There's a large metal cage in the middle of the canyon, and I sense a massive amount of chakra being extracted from it."

"All that energy could mean Gaara's inside." I have to concur with Neji's hypothesis. Naruto's chakra feels normal, it's Gaara's that feels weird. So by process of elimination…

Of course, there's another chakra ahead that really worries me. It's massive and powerful, and feels a bit too much like and too different from Gaara's at the same time. That can't possibly be good.

Feeling nervous, I pick up the pace significantly. "Come on, we have to move, now!"

"Agreed!" Shikamaru catches up to me, just barely keeping pace with me. "But you have to wait for the rest of us!"

I grit my teeth and stare ahead. "No, I shouldn't even be letting any of you near this battle, but I know that I wouldn't be able to stop any of you, even if I tried."

"And why exactly would you try to stop us?" Kankuro catches up, followed by Kiba and Chouji, which is weird, since I thought that they would have beaten us there. Maybe they just got lost.

I look back at them, sunburst eyes in full view. "Because this isn't a battle that any of you can get involved in. Not if you value your lives." If Gaara is at the point that I think he is, they'd be more likely to get themselves killed than be of any real help.

Kiba scoffs. "And what makes you so special?"

"If things go badly, then you'll find out." I've managed to keep most of the truth from them so far, mostly because I avoid situations where they might ask about it. But…after that more recent incident with Genno and the bombs, I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to keep it secret much longer. But maybe…just a few more minutes before they call me a monster too.

The canyon comes into view, and panic surges through me as I see Gaara, half transformed into a demonic form. Damn it, not now! This is the worst possible timing. He's still injured, his chakra is depleted, and his demon is not the friendly kind. It's taking him over because he's not strong enough to force it back.

As we skid into the canyon, Shikamaru's eyes widen, and he turns to Temari. "Oh man…is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah." She looks scared, and I don't blame her. This isn't something that can just be dealt with. "The transformation's begun."

Kankuro skids in behind us, his voice barely level. "This is bad."

"You think?" I roll my eyes and they land on Naruto. "Great…more healing to do." I jump over, landing right behind Naruto as I start tending to the badly bleeding cuts. Hinata quickly joins me by his side, not really doing anything. And the girl with the brown hair, Gaara's student, I guess, is just sitting there without a clue.

Temari walks over, intent on talking to the girl. "Matsuri, are you okay?"

Matsuri nods. "Yeah, but Gaara-Sensei needs help."

"Okay, I'll let you look after her." Naruto pushes himself to his feet and away from my healing hands, which really annoys me.

I grab him by the arm, glaring at him. "Naruto, you're injured. If you're going to insist on going back in to fight, at least let me patch you up first. And then, the two of us can go in together." I smile sadly as my eyes flicker to Gaara. "This is our problem, after all."

He bites his lip, before letting out a sigh. "Fine, but be fast about it. We need to help Gaara pronto."

"Got it." I clap my hands together, intensifying the chakra there immeasurably. Then, I press them to Naruto's back, rapidly healing his wounds.

"Things are going to get really ugly really soon." Temari's fear is understandable, but it still makes me bristle a little. After all…the only difference between me and Gaara in this respect is that my 'passenger' is friendly.

Shikamaru growls with frustration. "Ciara, will you hurry up? It's not like we've got all the time in the world, here."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." I pump Naruto full of chakra, healing the cuts on his arms, before going for the hands that he's half destroyed by clawing at something he shouldn't have. "Damn it, Naruto. I know you like shredding things but this is ridiculous."

"Hey, I had to do something!" He huffs indignantly, crossing his arms. Of course, since I'm still healing them, I yank them right back out. "Hey, ow! That hurts!"

"It wouldn't hurt if you would just sit still, dammit!" I finish with his hands as quickly as possible, my eyes constantly trailing back over to where Gaara is sitting.

And I'm not the only one with my eyes on Gaara, Neji does too. "What in the world's going on there?"

"What do you see?" Lee's curiosity is going to get him killed. "What is it"

"Gaara seems to be transforming into some sort of half beast." I twitch at Neji's analysis. "While his opponent's chakra is increasing exponentially."

Matsuri gets to her feet, apparently alright. "That one called himself Seimei, the founder of the Village of Artisans. He said he'd been reborn as the ultimate ninja tool."

"A lousy thief is what he is." Naruto nearly twitches his hands away from me again. "He's stealing Gaara's chakra."

"Come to think of it, the enemy we faced wore a similar set of armor, with the power to absorb one's chakra." Well, Lee's babbling is good for something. Now I know to avoid that armor.

"Hm…armor that feeds off chakra? We must be very careful, we can't just rush in." I know that Shino has a point, and that his bugs an do the same thing, but he's really not helping me to keep my temper down.

Shikamaru starts sweating a bit. "Yeah, but we gotta do something."

"Yes, and that's why I'm healing Naruto as fast as I can. Because he and I are going to do something while the rest of you sit back and try not to get yourselves killed." Okay, my temper is starting to spiral out of control. "But first things first…" I take a deep breath and raise my voice almost to a scream. "Gaara! Get ahold of yourself, dammit! We don't have time to be restraining you until you get your sanity back, so you're going to have to fight it!"

Gaara growls, or maybe it's more of a groan, or something halfway in between. Either way, it gets louder and louder, and he's still, but shaking.

"Gaara!" I raise my voice again. "Listen to my voice and come back! Don't let him force you into submission!"

Shikamaru looks at me like I'm insane. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

I ignore him, getting to my feet now that I've sufficiently healed Naruto. And, walking right into the path of danger, I flicker up behind Gaara and touch his shoulders, my wings bursting from my back and wrapping around him. "Come back!"

Then, I feel the sand melting away under my fingertips, falling off Gaara's arm and face, the transformation receding. Gaara…you did it…you fought it back with sheer willpower.

Finally, he opens his eyes, and that Seimei guy just laughs. "So, it was too much for your chakra to complete the transformation, eh?"

Gaara's voice, even more raspy after a half transformation, comes out much weaker than I'd like. "If I'm to help my friends, I must do it for myself, on my own!"

"You fool, you're allowing your emotions to guide you. A shinobi must abandon emotion if he's to obtain ultimate power. And power…power is the only truth in this world, as you're about to find out." This man…and his notions of power are so twisted and warped that it makes me sick to my stomach.

Still, now is not the time to debate the philosophy of shinobi expectations. No, now is the time for me to pour chakra into Gaara once more, and replenish his strength enough that he can keep fighting. Because now, this is about honor. "Gaara, are you alright?"

He breathes heavily, pressing back into my hands. "No, but I will endure."

I smile wryly. "Atta'boy, that's a good attitude to have. Stupid, but good."

Then, Seimei's three blue sword-like weapons come flying at us, and my power flares in an instant. _Suzaku, how much power can you give me without killing me?_

 _…Up to three tails._ His voice is hesitant, but speaks true. If three tails is all my body can handle now so be it.

 _Do it._ I know exactly what I'll do with that much power.

He concedes to my request easily enough. _As you wish._

The three snake-like swords reach forward to strike at Gaara. "Your time is done, you freak of the Sand Village." They're fast…

But I'm faster.

In an instant, three red, orange, and gold tail-feathers burst from my lower back, wrapping around and ensnaring the three weapons. And with the extra strength provided to me, I grab hold of them, yank them hard, and hurl Seimei across the canyon and into the wall.

With an extra moment, I tend to the wound in Gaara's side, which is still bleeding profusely. Nevertheless, he smirks as Seimei pulls himself out of the rock, floating back towards us.

The floating corpse raises an eyebrow at us. "Oh, why so cocky? The sand monster has no chakra left. In fact, I'm surprised he has the strength to hod that grin on his face."

"Yes…even with the chakra transfusions, my own chakra is almost totally depleted. But…" And I think I like the sound of this but. "All the time I was trapped in that cage, do you think I was just sitting on my hands, doing nothing, huh?" He lowers his voice so that only I can hear it. "Take to the sky. This is my battle to finish."

I really don't want to leave him here without backup, but…I do know that this is a matter of honor to him. "Fine. But take this at least." I ram a huge burst of chakra into his body, hopefully giving him enough power to do whatever it is that he has planned before I flap my wings and take to the sky.

As I gain altitude, Gaara claps his hands together. "Sand Tsunami!"

As nothing happens, Seimei laughs. "It would appear that you've run out of sand as well as chakra." And he has no clue how dead wrong he is. After all, I remember the fight with Kimimaro. Gaara didn't run out of sand then either.

And Gaara stands to prove him wrong. "I am Gaara of the Desert. Wherever there is rock, wherever there is earth, I can make more sand." And at his command, rocks start falling from the canyon walls, breaking apart into smaller and smaller pieces. And the sand comes from both above and below, rising higher and higher until Gaara stands on top of a giant sand dune.

But still, it looks like that man won't die. "Kujaku Hurricane Formation!" His voice booms forth, despite the fact that the guy should have an annoying amount of sand in his mouth. He pops right out of the ground like a daisy after a long winter. "You've that much chakra left…how unexpected. On the other hand, that means there's that much more I can feed on." He activates that armor of his, sucking up most of the chakra that remains from the boost I gave him. One way or another, this fight isn't going to last much longer.

And when Gaara raises his hand, it looks like he's going to be the one to finish this. A rather terrifying looking spear forms in his hand, with some very familiar red markings on it. "Shukaku's Pike!" _Ah…going for the power attack now huh? It better work, because that's the last of your chakra._

He hurls it like he's been handling throwing weapons all his life, and it slams straight into the mouth of the armor that Seimei has been using to suck up chakra. It shatters all of it, and as the armor falls away, what we can see left behind is a spreading bloodstain on Seimei's robes. Right in the gut. That's going to bleed a ton.

"H-how did you." His breath stutters, clearly from pain. "That's impossible!"

"You wouldn't understand, you're only a ninja tool." _Oof, ouch, Gaara, hit him where it hurts, why don't you?_ "You turned your back on being human."

"Ridiculous. It can't be." What's left of his rainment shatters and he falls to the ground. "It can't be!" And when that happens, Gaara's sand swirls around him, sucking him back underground.

Gaara kneels down and slams his hands against the sand. "Giant Sand Burial!" And presumably, Seimei is crushed under several hundred tons of sand.

"Gaara!" Naruto and Temari come running, followed by about half of the others who came along on this rescue mission.

Temari feels for a pulse and sighs. "He's alright…and to think, he was able to suppress Shukaku…"

I look down at them, my eyes wandering over the sand. "All of you, get off the sand, and take Gaara with you. Just in case…I'm going to make sure that no one ever comes looking for Seimei's remains, ever again."

Naruto stares up at me, frowning in confusion. "What are you gonna do?"

"You can watch, but just make sure not to get in range." After all, I don't feel the need to barbecue anyone today, least of all the people I actually care about.

"Alright." Shikamaru signals to the others to get over by the tree line, plenty far away, but still within range so that they can watch.

I take a deep breath, flying high above the sand dune containing that madman's remains. _Okay, we're going to need to make this really hot. How much do you think will be enough for what I have in mind?_

 _I believe that I have just the technique, if you'll allow me._ And at his request, I surrender control of my body, and I watch as flames spill from the huge red wings that seem to get bigger every time I use them.

He flaps them once, powerfully, then again, even more so. With each flap of the wings, more and more flames drip towards the ground, eventually becoming a swirling whirlwind of the hottest flames I've ever felt. And considering that I like to breathe fire, that's saying something.

The inferno becomes larger and hotter, touching the sand and melting it down to a red hot compound that looks like you could cook eggs just by getting them withing twenty feet of it. It seriously looks like a volcano exploded, and this is the lava flow.

 _Now, perform your Dragon Tempest and cool the molten sand. As you desired, it will turn to glass._

 _Perfect._ My hands move quickly, and the wind picks up, swirling across the surface of the molten sand, sweeping it up and swirling it around as it cools, turning it into a huge swirly glob of almost orange-looking glass. _Huh, there must have been iron in there. It would explain the color._

Soon, the glass cools completely, sealing whatever remains of Seimei down in its depths. Now, even if someone tries to go hunting for the remains, all they will find is easily shattered glass. And whatever remains of Seimei will be shattered along with it.

The three tails coming out of my back disappear one by one as I float down towards the ground. And one I touch down, my wings, the feathers in my hair, and the markings on my face disappear as well, my eyes returning to their dull green color. I breathe a sigh of relief as I walk towards where Naruto is watching over Gaara. "It's done. No one will ever be able to resurrect Seimei or use those weapons ever again."

"No kidding…" Naruto's eyes bug out as he looks at the glass lake behind me. "Don't you think you might have gone just a little overboard?"

I raise a disbelieving eyebrow. "You're saying that I went overboard? Hi pot, my name is kettle."

"Huh?" Naruto tilts his head. "My name isn't pot. And last I checked, you definitely weren't named kettle."

I slam my palm t my face. "Naruto…it's a expression. The pot calling the kettle black. It means that you may say I went overboard, but you go overboard too! And you do it way more often than I do!"

"Hey! I-" He raises a hand to argue, before seemingly forgetting what he was going to say. "Ah…forget it."

I roll my eyes, before a sudden wave of dizziness hits me. "Crap, not now…" I stumble slightly, before falling to my knees. "Okay, maybe three tails was a bit overboard. But…" I look Naruto in the eye and smile. "Still, I can't help but be proud of that power, you know?" _Jinchuuriki...and proud._

He blinks, before returning the smile. "Yeah, I know." Then, he turns around and motions to his back. "Hop on, I'll carry you home."

With a sigh, I lean towards him and wrap my arms around his neck. "Alright, but you had better not slam into any trees on the way back. I don't want to wake up with a concussion."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He stands up, and I see Temari picking up Gaara.

Smiling at him, I close my eyes. "I'm proud of him too…"

Exhaustion sweeps me away before we even leave the canyon.


	77. Goodbye Hidden Leaf

**Alright, so this is the last chapter before the timeskip. There are several options that I have before me. The first is to just continue this story with the timeskip. The second is to finish up this story with this chapter, mark it complete, and make a new story for Shippuden (which would probably be easiest, since going over 350k with this story might make some people shy away from reading it). And my third option is to do the same as option two, but to add in omakes to the end of this one as I think them up, detailing a few mishaps that I think would be likely to occur while the two are off exploring the world with Jiraiya (otherwise they will just be added as flashbacks in option 1 or 2 for comic relief).**

 **Feel free to weigh in on those options.**

 **This chapter is also about a few different goodbyes. So it's going to jump around a bit.**

* * *

I smile as I sit by Gaara's bedside. We brought the four Sand villagers back to the Leaf for medical treatment before thinking about sending them home. After all, our medical facilities are much better than the Sand's, plus, we're closer to the site of the battle anyway.

And for some reason, someone thought that it was a good idea to put Naruto and Gaara together in the same room. Whoever's bright idea that was obviously has a screw loose, because I swear that Naruto has done more yacking than healing with Gaara around. And Gaara has been kind enough to indulge him, probably a lot more than is healthy.

Still…I can't help but smile down at the redhead, even though he's bandaged head to toe, resembling a mummy as much as Naruto apparently had after our disaster of a mission to rescue Sasuke. So that parallel is comical enough in and of itself.

With a wry smirk, I chuckle slightly. "So, have we repaid that favor we owe you?"

Gaara's eyes find me, hen stay locked on me as a faint smile curls his lips. "Yes, I believe you have."

"You believe?" I raise a mocking eyebrow. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were making a joke."

"Then I suppose it's a good thing that you know me better." His expression is so serious, he's got like a perfect poker face.

I resist the urge to whack him upside the head, like I do with Naruto when he does something stupid. Though it's only because he's injured. If he were healthy, I'd make him rue those cracks. "You are so lucky that you're injured right now, otherwise you'd be in for it, I promise."

"Is that so?" I swear, I can see amusement dancing in his eyes. And to think…his eyes used to be so cold. _I guess that a lot of things have changed._

I cross my arms and huff. "Yes, that's so." Then, that familiar pit opens up in my stomach. "You…saw what I did."

He blinks once. "Yes."

I take a deep breath, my heart sinking. "And…did it scare you? To see that, I mean?"

"No." Surprisingly, there's not even a second of hesitation. His eyes drop to my stomach. "Is it…kind to you?"

That's far from the question I was expecting. But I press my hand to my stomach, the hole inside aching a little. "Yes, he is kind to me. He has always been kind to me. He's…different."

"I see…good." The news makes him smile a little more. "It's good that you have someone close by to protect you."

And that makes me pout. "And exactly why do I need someone to protect me? You have seen me fight, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have." He tilts his head ever so slightly on the pillow. "You are very reckless, especially when Naruto is with you."

It takes everything I have not to sputter with indignation. "It only looks reckless because people underestimate me!"

"Of course…" I get the feeling that he's just indulging me. _Hmph, we'll see once I'm bigger. Everything's going to change, I just know it._

Then, I feel a breeze come in through the window. The window that wasn't open before. So, I listen carefully, and I hear a very startled voice. "Gah! Pervy Sage!?"

"Ah, long time no see, Naruto." Yep…definitely the old pervert.

"Don't you give me that 'long time no see' stuff old man! You were supposed to be supervising my training, teaching me everything you know, making me your protege! What happened to that!? Where have you been all this time!?" Jeez, Naruto can sure get loud when he's upset. _Is he really that mad that Jiraiya ditched us for a few months?_

"Oh…well, I've had a lot to do. Been busy with my research." Upon hearing all of that, Gaara looks up at me silently, eyebrows creased. So I just roll my eyes and shrug.

"Yeah, yeah, spying on pretty women for those stupid books of yours." And Naruto hit the nail on the head there. I wouldn't be surprised if the old man got caught slipping into the wrong hot springs once or twice.

"Stupid, huh!?" At first, it looks like it's going to get funny, but Jiraiya calms down rather unexpectedly. "Anyway…it just so happens you're way off base. I was gathering as much information as I could on the Akatsuki.

"Akatsuki?" Definitely the last topic Naruto was expecting to hear come out of Jiraiya's mouth.

"Yes, and I have a pretty good idea what they're up to." I'm honestly not sure whether to be happy about that news or not. After all…I know someone in the Akatsuki. "I estimate that we have about two years before they're really ready to make their move, which means I have that much time to try and make a real ninja out of you." Then, he raises his voice. "Out of both of you, if you agree to come along as well."

My eyes widen, before I snort with laughter. "Of course you knew I was here…and I suppose that you've run your little idea past Grandma Tsunade about stealing one of her medics out from under her nose."

"That's right." Well, there's no need to ask what the answer to that was, then.

"And if I agree?" Best to know the details now, rather than later.

"Then you're on the road with me for the next couple of years. Think you can handle it?" There's a challenge in his voice. And while I know that I could turn it down…

"You're on." Like hell am I wasting this chance. I barely get to go out of the Leaf as is. With the old perv, we'll probably get to go to all sorts of places. _I guess he likes me more than I thought._

"Then are you two ready for some serious training?" And there's another challenge up in the air for us.

Naruto laughs. "I've been ready for months, old man!"

I sigh and smile sadly. "Yeah, I'm ready as well." Then I look at Gaara. "But first, I have a few people that I need to say goodbye to."

I can see Jiraiya's outline nodding. "Of course, we don't leave for a couple of days. You two are going to need time to clean up, pack, and see people."

"Thank you." I close my eyes, smiling. Then, I open them to look straight into a pair of seafoam ones. "Well, that happened a bit sooner than I expected." Not that I was really expecting Jiraiya to up and abduct us or anything, but still...

He nods quietly. "You'll be gone for some time."

"Yeah…" I smirk widely. "I bet you won't even recognize me by the time we get back. I'll be way taller and way stronger. You'll see." After all, with two, maybe two and a half years, that's more than enough time for puberty to set in. And I'm holding out hope for some major growth spurts.

I sit with Gaara a little while longer, just in a calm silence, before I stand up and press a kiss to his forehead. "I'd better go. I have a lot of packing and cleaning to do." I smile once more. "I'll miss you."

He hand that softly brushes mine is all I need to know. Gaara's not good with affection, but I know that means he'll miss me too.

With one last look behind me, I leave the hospital room, knowing that I'm not going to see this place again for a very long time.

* * *

"You're what!?" Hiro stares at me in utter shock. "Why the hell are you leaving for two whole years and then some!?"

"I told you…there's a group of people after me and Naruto, so we're heading out with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage." I feel like I'm explaining it to a child, not someone a year older than me. "It's a really long training trip, that's all."

"Huh, so you're going to see the world, then?" Akito is taking this much more calmly than Hiro. "You'd better bring us back some souvenirs, then."

I roll my eyes at my teammate's silliness. "Yes Akito, I'll bring you both back some souvenirs." Then, I get a devilish idea. "Hey…what do you wanna bet that you won't recognize me when I get back?"

Akito raises an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't we recognize you?"

I shrug. "Two and a half years is a long time. And I'll probably hit puberty by then. It can change a lot about a person."

Akito and Hiro share a look, before nodding. "Alright, if you come back and we don't recognize you on sight, then we'll put in a recommendation for you to be tested for jounin. Ibiki is pretty attached to me, and Iruka loves Hiro to bits. So we can get some support for the recommendation." Then he wiggles his eyebrows. "But that had better be one hell of a transformation."

Oh…I'm pretty sure that it will be. "Deal. And if you two win…" I think about it for a second. "I'll cook for the both of you for a month." They love my cooking the times that they've been over to visit, so that should be enough to entice them.

"Deal!" Their response is immediate and oddly synchronized.

Reaching over to hug the both of them, I relax just for a little bit. "I'm really going to miss you two. So don't have too much fun while I'm gone, okay?" Then I pull back and grimace. "Ah, though, if it involves the two of you making out, feel free to have all of that fun without me."

It's rather hilarious to see both their faces turn beet red, but it's not like I don't know about them. Hell, I caught them in the training grounds on more than one occasion, I was just too nice to bust them.

I start cracking up at their expressions. "Don't worry, I haven't told anyone else what goes on when you two are alone in the training grounds. Though you might want to hide yourselves better. I've walked in on almost a dozen incidents, and neither of you had a clue."

Hiro smacks his head down on the table, while Akito groans into his hand. "Your suggested has been noted…and I think I'm okay with you leaving for so long, now."

Ah…there's nothing like embarrassing your teammates into letting you leave without a fight.

"Seriously though…" I reach out to hold their hands. "I'm seriously going to miss you two."

Hiro lifts his head up with a smile. "We'll miss you too. Just make sure to get a whole lot stronger for us, okay?"

"Okay." I squeeze their hands, and try not to cry. We've been a team for months, and now…our team is breaking up. It hurts.

It hurts a lot.

* * *

As I finish sweeping up and putting things away, I put the last few items I'll need into my backpack. I'm packing fairly light, just my backpack with a couple outfits in it, my medical kit, and my weapons. If we're going to be on the road or over two years, then there's no point in packing heavily. We can just buy whatever we need out there. And I've got plenty of money from working at the hospital, plus all the little missions I've done here and there, so I'm not hurting for cash. Not that Jiraiya needs to know that.

Once the last little bits of dust are clean, I take one last look at the picture frames dotting the area around my bed. My team, my friends, me and Naruto, some old family members…Itachi and Shisui.

Shaking my head, I reach down and pick up my backpack, pulling it on and heading for the door. To my surprise, I open it to see Naruto about to knock on it. "Oh, hey."

"Hey." I swallow nervously. "I guess…you're ready to go, then?"

He nods. "Yeah, all packed and cleaned up. Pervy Sage said to meet him at the gates in a half hour."

"Right." I take a deep breath, then feel my determination swelling up inside me. "Then let's go. One last round at Ichiraku's, and then we're out of here."

That makes Naruto grin from ear to ear. "Alright then, let's go!" And he drags me along so fast that it makes me wonder if he's learned how to use the Body Flicker.

Within minutes, we're standing in front of Ichiraku's, and there's a very familiar face waiting for us. "Hey you two. I heard that you were leaving for a while, so I thought I'd treat you to a last round before you go." Iruka smiles at us, looking ever so proud.

"Alright! Ramen!" Naruto zooms inside, placing the orders before Iruka and I can get a word out.

As we sit down, I elbow Iruka. "So, you're getting rid of us for a couple of years. Bet you'll be glad that there aren't any more pranks going down in the village."

Iruka laughs heartily at the reminder. "Yes, well, I suppose that it'll be a lot quieter around here with the two of you gone. You make quite a bit of a ruckus, yourself." Teuchi, already done with the orders, inhumanly quickly, places them down in front of us.

"No I do not." I pout, knowing that it's totally a lie. "Anyway…it's going to be hard to be away from the village for so long…" I break open my chopsticks and shove them into the bowl, shoveling down the ramen about half as fast as Naruto.

"Mmm…yeah, it sounds like you two have quite the journey ahead of you." Iruka digs into his own ramen, much more calmly than the two of us. "And hey, you two need to keep focused out there, no goofing off, alright?"

"Focus is my middle name, Sensei!" And as soon as Naruto says that, I want to call bullshit.

"Alright, time to hit the road, Naruto, Ciara." I turn around to see Jiraiya's face poking into the shop.

Naruto shovels down the last of his ramen, so I follow suit, before drinking down all of the broth, letting the war feeling settle in my stomach for a few seconds before getting up. "Alright, I guess…we're out of here."

Naruto puts down his bowl and grins. "Thanks for the ramen, Iruka-Sensei, I'll pay you back. In fact, when I'm Hokage, I'll buy you lunch!"

"When you're-" But I drag Naruto out of the restaurant before Iruka can finish his sentence, and I laugh as I wave at him. Shaking his head, he just waves back with a smile on his face.

Jiraiya walks us through the village and off towards the gates. It's strange, the feeling of walking through the village now. I feel like I'm floating into another dimension. It's…really hard to describe.

And as we approach the gates, it kind of stuns me to see several familiar faces there, leaning against poles, walls, staring and smiling. _Looks like our classmates decided to see us off._ I think I even spotted Hinata hiding behind one of the poles, watching Naruto again.

Just as we reach the gates leading out of the village, I spin around once, slowly, looking at all the faces I won't see for a while.

 _I'll miss you all, but I promise that well both come back stronger._

That's a promise we're definitely going to keep.


	78. Author's Note and Teaser

**Okay, so this isn't technically a chapter per-say, but it's a bit of a teaser, as well as an announcement page. I'm going to put up the next installment as a different story, since stories that get past 300k words can frighten some people off, and we're already about 50k past that. So, here's what's going to go down.**

 **1) I'm putting up Dance of the Dragon as the next story, that title will make a lot of sense after the first chapter.**

 **2) I will put marking this story as complete, but I'll be putting up chapters now and then, detailing little incidents and funny stories that happen with them while on the road with Jiraiya. They will include...**

 ***Sparring practice.**

 ***Ciara learning Earth Style.**

 ***A hot springs mishap.**

 ***Naruto being Ciara's practice dummy for her genjutsu training.**

 ***Naruto and Ciara shopping for new clothes after the training and growth spurts.**

 **And more...as soon as I think them up. Or you guys can make suggestions, as long as they fit into the wide realm of possibilities.**

 **Now...on with a teaser for the next story, which I will be posting shortly (as in...right after I'm done posting this).**

* * *

Today, there's a smile on my face. The last two and a half years have been…rough, to put it mildly. But it's the nostalgia at seeing home again that's really getting to me.

 _I wonder how much has changed?_

 _I wonder if they really won't recognize me…_

As we pass by a puddle on the ground, likely the result of the recent spring rains, I look at my reflection in the water. That's something I haven't done in a while.

 _Yeah…a lot has changed._

In the water, I see dark brown hair, the color of melted chocolate, braided around the crown of a pleasantly tanned face. And from that tanned face, two deep, emerald green eyes stare back out. The most astounding part of this transformation, is that now, I can almost stare Naruto right in the eyes. The pain was worth it after I shot up a whole foot in height. The changes to my hair and my eyes were just pleasant surprises.

If I didn't know better, I would say that I was starting at a female version of my father. Which would explain where all the height came from, he was not a short man. Not Jiraiya tall, but about six feet, at least, from what I remember of him. Of course, I'm eight inches under that, but still, at fifteen, that's pretty damn good if I do say so myself.


End file.
